On the arrangement, care, and operation of wood-working factories and machinery; forming a complete operator's handbook

REESE LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Receired
Accessions No 2, M&9 Shelf No.

ON

THE AEEANGEMENT, CAEE, AND OPERATION

OF

WOOD-WOEKIM FACTORIES
AND MACHINERY;

FORMING

A COMPLETE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

BY J. KICHAEDS,

MECHANICAL ENGINEER, AUTHOR OF 'A TREATISE ON WOOD- WORKING MACHINES.'

NEW YOEK:
E. & F. N. SPON, 446, BECOME STKEET.

LONDON :
48, CHARING CROSS.

1873.

[Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by John Richards, in
the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.^

PREFACE.

IN the 'Treatise on the Construction and Operation of
Wood-working Machines,' it was necessary to introduce
a large number of expensive engravings, and to treat of
many things not directly connected with the processes of
wood conversion, but relating entirely to the construction
of machines. This, while it added to the value of the
work for engineers and machinists, at the same time
extended its cost, and placed^ it c beyond the means of
machine operators and wobd mechanics generally; be-
sides, the plan of the work did not include the practical
details of shop manipulation.

In view of this fact, and further to promote the de-
velopment of wood manufacture, it has been considered
expedient to supplement the * Treatise on the Construc-
tion and Operation of Wood-working Machines,' with a
shorter one, directed to their care and management, in-
cluding the plans of arranging and equipping factories
for wood work, and particularly the details with which
the practical workman has to deal.

The work is mainly based upon American practice,
which can hardly detract from its usefulness in other

a2

IV PBEFACE.

countries. The wood interest is more extended in America
than elsewhere, and we have every reason to assume, that
with our present facilities of intercourse, wood conversion,
like other manufacturing processes, will become analogous
and uniform, as it progresses and improves.

J. RICHARDS.

10, JOHN STREET, ADELPHI, LONDON,
JAN., 1873.

INTRODUCTION.

AT the present day it may be fairly claimed that machines
have supplanted hand labour in working wood.

Year by year improvements have gone on, until bench
work and hand skill have become comparatively unim-
portant elements in wood manufacture ; and, as Professor
Willis remarked before the Society of Arts, 1852, " no-
thing remains to be done by hand, but to put the com-
ponent parts together." None, except those who have
learned their trades when and where machines were
not used, can realize this change. You may tell the
apprentice of to-day about going out through the snow
to a board-pile, selecting your stuff, carrying it in, and
after scraping off the snow in winter, or sweeping off
the dust in summer, laying out the stuff with a chalk-
line,- and straight-edge, ripping out the job by hand,
setting it about the stove to dry, and then dressing it
up with a jack plane. You may tell him of mortising
by hand, cutting tenons and shoulders, with a back-
saw, and he will look at you with an incredulous stare.
No wonder; for this sort of thing has passed away,
and with it, we are happy to say, some of the hardest
labour that ever was dignified with the name of me-
chanical. It was mechanical, nevertheless, and called
for the continual exercise of judgment and skill ; from
the cutting out to the cleaning off, it was a kind of
race between brains and muscle, in which brains some-

VI INTRODUCTION.

times conquered. Many a time, as older hand workmen
will remember, would a small man, without that muscular
strength that seemed to be the main element in his work,
have earned his dollar or two dollars more at the end of
the week than his stronger competitor, simply by his
superior hand skill, superior judgment, and superior tools.
But now machines do the work, and the main business of
the operative is to take care of, guide, and direct them.
The muscular work is gone; the brain work remains.
We cannot quite say that our occupation is, like Othello's,
gone, but it is greatly changed — from hand operation,
it has become machine operation, and hence the need for
this little work.

Machine operating is a trade — not an ordinary trade, but
one of great intricacy, and unlike almost any other ; it is
one that cannot be completely learned even in a lifetime.

A man endowed with a strong natural capacity may,
during a long and diversified experience, become a pro-
ficient and successful operator of wood machines, but the
incessant changes and improvements that are going on
in machines and processes, together with the arduous
nature of his work, are more than enough to take up his
time and his abilities. Month after month, and year after
year, he sees that which he has to learn, grow and expand
until he almost despairs of mastering it. He is not
a mechanic with a trade in the usual sense ; but is a
mechanic of many trades. The duties discharged by a
machine operator in America would be and are in Europe
divided up into half-a-dozen different callings ; there are
for instance the sawyer, the filer, the planer, the jig sawyer,
finisher, and others, involving a division of labour which
would be very far from producing the results we have
in our wood-working establishments in America, where

INTRODUCTION. Vll

the machine operator must be a bench workman, under-
stand all wood-machine operation, must be a machinist,
not only one that can chip and file, but must know the
theory of constructing and repairing machines ; he must
be a millwright, not an old time " whittler " who could
pare for a week on half-a-dozen wooden cogs of a crown
wheel, but a millwright who can lay out shafting, calcu-
late speeds, build wooden drums and supports, and do it
in a rapid and thorough manner; in short, be proficient
in the most difficult of millwright work. Thus the wood
workman, in escaping the muscular part of his calling, has
only added to the mental part; but he has at the same
time the assurance that the change dignifies his business,
and leads to better pay, which has in all times and all
places corresponded more to the mental than the physical
part of man's labour.

Nearly every mechanical trade has its "Handbook,"
" Manual," or " Guide," based upon the practice of
skilled men, and containing rules founded on experience,
which have been of great use in giving information to
workmen. To argue the merit of such books is super-
fluous. In every country the advancement of mechanic
art has been largely if not mainly indebted to the dis-
semination of technical literature of this kind. A book
relating to any branch of industry is, or ought to be, but
the experience of some person, given with opinions and
rules deduced from that experience, and is more valuable
than oral instruction because more carefully given, can
be often referred to, and used by a greater number of
people. There has been in time past, and there is still,
too much of a feeling that books cannot deal directly with
practice, and relate to theory only ; and further, that
theory and practice are not only different elements in

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

mechanics, but in a measure antagonistic and opposed to
each other. The further we go back, the more we find
of this spirit, which has grown out of a variety of reasons,
among which we will name the imperfection or im-
practicable character of certain books prepared by those
who were only versed in theory, and did not understand
practice as well. Again, want of knowledge and ap-
preciation of the true relations between theory and
practice ; and the general want of both a knowledge of,
and attention to principles, has led to the same result.
We therefore, without fear of error, may claim that the
popular estimate of text-books is in a degree wrong. We
take up a book devoted to some art with which we are
familiar, and find the author has made a blunder on some
particular point which we understand better than he does,
and at once conclude that the book is of no use; but
read on, the author may make ten successive mistakes
and then give some useful idea, that is new to the reader,
and worth twenty times the cost of the book. Besides,
the too common idea, especially with young mechanics, is
to regard as wrong all that differs from their own opinions
and practice. These things are mentioned as operating
against the good that class text-books may do; but still
the fact remains, that to such books we have been in the
past indebted, and to them we must in the future look as
a principal means of disseminating technical knowledge.

We have said that nearly all mechanical trades have
been developed by, and have, their text-books. Can anyone
tell why wood manufactures have had no such text-books ?
or rather, why wood working by machinery has had no
books of any kind? This is the more remarkable in
America, where the wood-working interest is so extensive,
and where at least a quarter of a million of people are

INTRODUCTION. IX

concerned in wood manufactures. So long as the fact is
assured, the reason. is not important, except as it may tend
to mend the matter in future.

We may say, that as changes and improvements in
machines have been so rapid text-books could not do
much good ; that the art had no scientific base admitting
rules that could be of general application ; and that the
operations were too diversified in different branches to
be treated under a general head, with other excuses ; but
the fact still remains, without a sufficient reason, that
wood manufactures have been greatly neglected, and that
much that might have been done has not been done.
In future, if the art is to keep up and maintain its
place as one of the most important among American
manufactures, it must, like metal work, textile fabrics,
engineering, and other interests, have a literature con-
sisting of text-books for operators and manufacturers, rules
and formulas for constructors, and a general system to
guide, in the arrangement of factories, the operation and
care of machines and like matters.

As to how far a text-book, or rather a handbook, may
be of general application in wood work is confessedly a
question of difficulty, and this should be considered in any
estimate placed upon what is written upon the subject ; but
there is still this argument in favour of having it relate to
wood work in general, that the whole tendency of shop
manipulation is to a uniformity of processes and machines,
and the more of the work there is performed by machines,
the stronger the analogy between different branches ; and
also, as machines approach nearer and nearer to a standard
form of construction for the general purposes of planing,
sawing, mortising, and so on, the more uniform will be
these processes. In short, the machines used for such pur-

INTRODUCTION.

poses as joinery, cabinet making, carriage making, are
becoming similar, except as to strength and capacity,
which is not to be wondered at when we reflect that the
one general principle throughout is cutting with sharp

Hoping to contribute something to such a desirable end,
this little treatise has been prepared. It is based directly
upon American practice, which is peculiar, and could not
be aided by text-books arranged for, and with reference to
practice in, older countries, where labour is cheaper and
the skill less ; where hand labour yet maintains an
important place, and will no doubt for a long time to
come.

It must be remembered that " Handbooks," " Manuals,"
and text-books generally, are compilations to a great
extent from more elaborate and scientific treatises relating
to the same subject, and that authors have but little to do
beyond condense, simplify, and arrange them. In the
present case, however, it is different. One might look
in vain to find anything to assist in the preparation
of a treatise on wood manufacturing, if we except the
writer's own Treatise on the Construction and Operation
of Wood-working Machines.

The writer therefore sets out on this job with the
expectation of having to furnish the material as well
as to do the work. It will consist mainly of, and be
founded on, his own experience, which he trusts has been
extensive and successful enough, to afford much that will
be useful to the reader.

We conclude this Introduction by further reminding the
reader that in most mechanical trades a handbook would
relate to processes alone ; but for reasons already given, a
book for machine operators in wood manufactures must be

INTRODUCTION. XI

more than this, or else fail to be of much use. It must to
some extent treat of the construction of machines, the
arrangement of wood manufactories, the power to drive
them, the handling of material, of all that the machine
hand has to deal with. As his calling is a combination of
trades, so must this book relate to a diversity of subjects.
There is but little fear of going outside of what an ope-
rator has to do and know, for it comprises nearly all that
is carried on in wood-working shops except the accounts,
and often includes a liberal share in that department.
With this fact in view, we have but little fear of getting
wide of the subject, and are quite confident that although
we may discuss things which the Title would hardly
reach, we shall not go beyond what either belongs to his
business or is of interest to the operator of wood-working
machinery.

OF THE

UNIVERSITY|

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

ARRANGEMENT OF WOOD-WORKING FACTORIES.

WOOD-WOKKING establishments in America are divided
mainly into those directed to the preparation of builders'
material, the manufacture of furniture, and carriage work.

The first comprehend planing mills, door, sash, and
blind factories, and moulding mills.

The second, all classes of furniture making, including
chairs and turned work generally, with musical instrument
cases.

The third, carriage work for railways and road traffic,
with framing for agricultural implements, a class of work
that is analogous and, as a rule, performed on the same
kind of machines.

Outside these three general divisions there are turn-
ing shops, bending works, handle factories, tool factories,
and similar establishments, in which the processes and
machines are more or less special.

Wood manufacture, as a process unlike most others
for the conversion of material, is confined to a single
operation, that of cutting, which will be treated of under
another head. The principles being nearly alike in the
action of all the different wood machines, it follows that
the shops are, or can be, very much on the same general
plan for the several divisions of work which we have
named. The machines and the material are nearly

B

A THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

the same for general woodwork ; and if we leave out
timber cutting, of which it is not proposed to say any-
thing in the present work, rules that will apply to a
planing mill, or furniture factory, will not be far wrong
for a carriage shop, or a car shop.

An ordinary wood-working factory may be a plain
rectangular building, not less than 48 feet wide inside ;
long enough and high enough to accommodate the require-
ments of the business. The writer in his experience has
found 48 feet an advantageous width, and would recom-
mend it never exceeding 60 feet; for beyond this the
added width will not afford facilities in the same ratio,
and will increase the proportionate cost of a building. A
width of 50 feet to 60 feet will allow for what we will
term four lines of machine work, two on each side, and
a tramway or a wagon road in the centre.

The diagram given, Fig. 1, will serve as an example of
this arrangement for a jobbing mill. The plan is not
assumed as presenting anything new, but given rather for
the opposite reason, because it is not new or ingenious.

The most important matter to be guarded against in
making plans for a new mill, is that of intricate and
original designs, seemingly presenting great advantages
on paper, and apparently quite correct to an architect
before building, but really quite wrong to a foreman or
manager after the building is completed.

Fig. 1 is on a scale approximately as 1 to 400.

The plan here suggested is for a country jobbing mill
60 x 120 feet outside dimensions, having two cross lines
of shafting, and equipped with machines requiring about
40-horse power.

The lower story should be 13 to 15 feet high in the
clear, and the countershafts as far as possible overhead.

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

The arrangement of machines upon the floor is a matter
that may be varied at pleasure, or to suit special kinds of

FIG. 1.

REFERENCES.

1.— Office, 14 x 16 feet.

2. — Counting room, 16 x 16 feet.

3. — Storeroom for oil, tools, and
• supplies, 10 x 16 feet.

4.— Kepairing and tool-dressing
room.

5. — Boiler-shed.

6. — Firing room.

7. — Magazine for shavings.

8. — Steam chimney.

9. — Engine-room.
10. — Steam furnace.
11. — Stairway.
12.— Hoisting platform.
13. — Cutting-off and jobbing saw-
bench.

14. — Jointing saw.
15. — Jobbing saw.
16. — Large flooring machine.

17. — Matching planers for jobbing.
18. — Large moulding machine.
19. — Small moulding machine.
20.— Slitting saw bench.
21.— General surfacing planer.
22. — Splitting saw for siding.
23. — Resawing machine.
24. — Wagon passage, or tramway.
25.— Grindstones for planer-knives

and tools.

26.— Engine lathe for repairing.
27. — Forge fire.

28. — Vice bench for machine fitting .
29. — Saw-filing bench.
30. — Pumps.

31. — Main driving pulley.
32.— Engine,
a a. — Shafting.

B 2

4 THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

work; it cannot well be predicated upon an ideal plan,
and can be remedied by changing, if wrong. The arrange-
ment of the machines also depends upon their number and
capacity. If in founding a mill the equipment is not
complete, as is generally the case, there is no necessity
for crowding and hampering machines to suit some
general plan which may be carried out in future, when
the mill is fully equipped ; it is often more advantageous
to set machines temporarily, moving them as occasion may
require, and thus obtaining more room, and greater con-
venience for the time being.

The shafting is shown arranged in two lines, three are
often better and more convenient. If three lines are used
they will cost but little more than a single one running
the other way of the building, and can have the advantage
of being arranged to run at different speeds if required.

The last shaft, or the one farthest from the engine, can
be driven at a higher speed than the other shafts to suit
joiners' machines on an upper floor, an arrangement that
is common in our mills ; joiners' machines if belted from
below will not require a line of shafting above, and a self-
supporting roof can be used, so that the upper room will
be clear of posts, adding greatly to both the appearance
and convenience of the room.

The position of the posts in the lower story is not
marked in Fig. 1, but they can be arranged on each side
of the central passage at a distance apart that will best
accommodate the handling of long stuff, which is an
important thing to be considered about a mill floor.

In connection with the plan, Fig. 1, the following list
of dimensions for machinery will be of use in making
plans for mills, even when they may vary in capacity
from the one assumed : —

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK. 5

Steam engine, 12 inches diameter, 20 to 24 inches
stroke, with a speed of 75 revolutions a minute.

Boiler, if double fl ued, 44 inches diameter, 28 feet long ;
if multiflued, one-fourth less heating surface will do.

Grate surface, equal to 16 square feet.

Steam chimney, 60 feet high ; area of flue, 500 square
inches, fitted with air-tight slide damper.

Engine-driving pulley, 10 feet diameter, 18 inches space.

Line shafting, 3 inches diameter throughout, to make
250 revolutions a minute.

Line-shaft pulleys, with average diameter of 36 inches
and 12 inches face.

Average speed of countershafting 750 revolutions a
minute.

Hoisting platform, 10 x 6 feet.

As various dimensions will be hereafter considered under
separate heads, these are only given to render the diagram
more complete.

For furniture and carriage manufacture, and in any case
where the lumber is short, or is reduced to short lengths,
in working, the arrangement of machines must have refer-
ence'rather to the course of the material through the
shop as it is sawed, planed, bored, and mortised, than to
providing room to handle it in.

In the case of a planing mill, a large share of the lumber
worked is only dressed, or jointed and matched, and then
again sent out ; the trouble is to find room for the lumber
among the machines, and to handle it ; in other words, to
get it into and out of the mill without interfering with
other work. If flooring is regularly or continually made,
or if surfacing is continually going on, it is useless to
provide room within the main building for storing either
the rough or finished stuff ; it should be fed in through the

6

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

walls, and passed out of them as fast as worked, in such a
manner as will not interfere with other operations going
on at the same time.

A lumber-planing mill, where nothing but planing is
done, requires a totally different arrangement from a mill
where joiners' stuff and mouldings are made, or jobbing done.

The main building should be in such cases about 24 feet
wide, with the machines placed side by side across the
building, and have large doors opening opposite the feed
end of each machine, as in Fig. 2.

The Figure is arranged on a scale of 1 to 200.

FIG. 2.

KEFEKENOES.

1. — Is the main planing room.

2. — The engine-room.

3. — Storeroom for oil, tools, and
stores.

4.— Magazine for shavings.

5. — Boiler fnrnace.

6. — Storing shed for worked lum-
ber.

7. — Steam chimney.

8.— Engine.

9. — Main driving pulley.

10. — Planing and matching ma-
chines.

11. — Surfacing machine.

12.— Line shaft.

13. — Large doors hinged at the top
to open inward.

14.— Portholes for planed stuff to
pass through.

15. — Ash-pit to the steam furnace.

THE OPERATOR S HANDBOOK. 7

This plan in substance has been adopted in some of the
larger mills about Chicago, and has many advantages to
recommend it for a mill that is devoted to lumber dressing
alone.

It affords a mill of great capacity with but a limited
investment in the building, and the most economical
arrangement of shafting and belts ; besides, the plan is as
safe from fire as it is possible to arrange one. The lumber
is mainly handled out of doors, which gives unlimited
room for storing, loading, and unloading it from wagons
or railway trains.

The main mill-room and the engine-room should be
thoroughly fireproof, with iron roof, and roof supports.

The walls should be 17 inches thick, and the overhead
cross-beams not less than 15 feet above the floor, with the
line shafting placed in pedestals, resting on top of the
beams.

The line shafting should be 3 inches diameter, and make
250 revolutions a minute.

A mill of this capacity should manufacture at least
25,000 feet of matched stuff in a day, besides doing an
equal amount of rough surfacing.

For general wood manufacture other than lumber dress-
ing or car building, the plain rectangular form of building
represented in Fig. 1 is as nearly correct as any that can
be devised. The material and the machines are short, and
a given amount of floor room, with convenient ingress and
egress, is all that is required.

Upper floors are, with good hoisting apparatus, nearly
as good as ground floors for most purposes, and the most
economical buildings for furniture manufacturing are from
four to six stories high.

To secure good lighting, cheap timber framing, and to
avoid posts, wood-working buildings should be narrow and

8

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

long; or rather the width should be constant, and addi-
tional room secured by length.

A building for wood manufacturing can be 48 feet wide
in the clear, with a single row of posts in the middle, if
the girders are deep enough, say 16 x 12 inches, or if
smaller they may be trussed, as shown in Fig. 3.

FIG. 3.

The truss rods are generally in the way of the belts,
especially when the line shafting is placed, as it should be,
across the building; and in nearly all cases it is both
better and cheaper to provide strength in the girders
without trussing them.

In the common plan of resting the joist on the top, the
girders are themselves in the way of the belts, and often
cause great inconvenience.

But few ever consider in building shops that this method
of mounting joists adds their depth to the height of the
walls ; so that it is not only an inconvenient but a very
expensive one. A building with three floors will re-
quire to be some three feet higher at least, to give the
same clearance between the floors as when the joists are
let in flush.

For factories, where there is overhead shafting, the joist

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

should be gained into the girders, and rest on string
pieces also, as in Fig. 4.

FIG. 4.

I

REFERENCES.

1.— Section across the girder.
2.— Joists.
3.— Post.
4. — Iron post cap, wide enough to receive the pieces 6, 6, \vhich

are bolted or spiked to the sides of the girder 1, to receive

part of the strain and support the joists.

With bearing strips to help support the joists, the latter
need not be gained into the girder far enough, nor deep
enough, to weaken it. The bottom of a beam is its
weakest part, in resisting transverse strain ; and the gain,
say 2J inches long and 6 inches deep in a girder 16 x 12
inches, does not affect its strength. The top receives only
compressive strain, and is after notching generally stronger
than the bottom side.

In Fig. 4, 5 5 are hanger-plates, which are thick enough
to come flush with the bottom of the girders, as shown by
the dotted lines. This arrangement of having the girders
project below the joist to a depth equal to a 3 or 4 inch
hanger-plate, is one that will find favour with any mechanic

10 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

who has had experience in erecting shafting beneath a floor,
where the joist was laid on the top of the girders, and where
all the plans for belts, and even the position of machines,
had to be governed by the position of the girders. As
here arranged, the whole ceiling is in effect a plane ; a
shaft or other overhead work can be set anywhere. If a
hanger comes on the girders, it is evident that no hanger-
plate is needed, so that there is really no inconvenience,
but a decided advantage in having the girders project
below the joist, to the difference of their depth, say from
3 to 4 inches.

Joist floors are the best floors for wood-manufacturing
establishments of all kinds. A 'plank floor, resting on girder
beams, is very strong in the sense of supporting a great load,
and will do very well for machine shops, but is totally unfit
to resist the jar and vibration of high-speed machines. A
floor of this kind is elastic and springy, no matter how
thick it may be, while a joist floor, well bridged, is stiff
and unyielding ; although it might be broken through in
spots with heavy weights, or might yield more in supporting
great loads.

To put the same planking upon joists, that is usually
laid on beams, would give a floor that is stronger in nine
cases out of ten. But the custom is to put a thin floor,
generally a single one, on joists, and a double one consisting
of heavy plank for the first course with 1^-inch matched
boards, upon beams. Without questioning the necessity
of the double floor in the case of beams, and admitting that
a joist floor is strong enough without it, it is certainly but
fair to assume a floor of equal strength in the two cases,
when making comparisons between the plans.

A double floor is always best, a jointed one, say of
IJ-inch thick lumber laid across the joist, and an inch

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 11

matched floor lengthwise the building, making 2 J inches in
all, is strong enough for ordinary upper floors that have
only finishing machines to support.

Ground floors on which the heavy traffic comes cannot
be made too strong. The weight of heavy machines
requires good foundation supports to keep them level and
to prevent vibration, but the piling of lumber which is
quite as heavy, and falls first in one place and then
another, is the main thing to provide against. The weight
of a machine is constant at one place, and when it is once
levelled up would remain so ; but if two to five thousand
feet of hard wood lumber is piled near it, unless the floor
is very strong, the machine is listed over or twisted by
depression of the floor.

When there is no basement room, and nothing to hinder
the building of piers beneath a floor, there is no excuse for
having it weak enough to yield, and it only requires
proper consideration at the time of erecting the building.

STEAM POWER FOR WOOD-WORKING ESTABLISHMENTS.

Among other subjects which a foreman or wood-machine
operator is expected to understand is that of steam power.
The steam power is an integral part of the machinery of the
establishment, and should not be conducted as a kind of
separate department from the rest. If it is, as a natural
consequence delays and derangements will be of frequent
occurrence.

To keep an engine always running requires quick
judgment and a fertility of expedients not often found
with the class of engineers it is common to employ in
wood-working mills.

12 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

In the United States the foremen and operators are, as
a rule, well acquainted with steam power, and it often
becomes a part of their duty to give suggestions and to
make plans for furnaces, boilers, engines, and other details
of the power department for wood shops.

It is therefore considered here quite in place to devote a
short chapter to the subject directed to some of the peculiar
points to be observed in making plans for steam power in
wood-manufacturing establishments.

A wood-working factory, unlike a machine shop, has
not the same facilities for repairing, and keeping fancy
steam engines in order. The dust renders it almost im-
possible to keep them clean or bright, and the work is so
irregular, and so heavy, that the expense of finishing is
much better expended in more careful fitting.

The duty of a steam engine is not only more severe, but is
more irregular than in almost any other business. As a
rule, steam engines in wood-working establishments will
be found working up to their full capacity, and require the
packing and joints to be carefully kept in order. The duty
is irregular in consequence of the sudden strain of starting
planing machines, saws, and similar machines* The average
duty is regular enough, so as to dispense with independent
cut-off valves on the engine, which must always add to the
complication, and liability to derangement and wear. A
strong plain engine is what is required, without bright finish
or ornament, but with well-fitted joints and large bearing
surfaces made of the best material.

The piston, cross-head connecting rod, and main
bearings, are the vital parts to be looked after. The
cross-head bearings are continually deprived of their oil
by the fine dust that will find its way to the engine-room,
no matter what precautions are taken to prevent it ; they

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 13

should have either fibrous packing, oil feeders, or be made
of wood. Gibs of lignum vitae will be found to wear well
and be safe from danger of cutting the slides ; besides,
they can be replaced at any time without detention for
repairs, or a trip to the machine shop.

An engine to drive wood machines requires a heavy
balance uheel to ensure steady motion, it should have not
less than 500 pounds of weight to each inch of diameter of
the cylinder, and be as large in diameter as practicable.

The piston speed should for the same object be from
300 feet to 400 feet a minute.

The boiler and steam furnace are matters of greater
importance than the engine. They generate the power,
the engine merely transmits it to the work, a thing not
always thought of.

In determining what variety of boiler to use, there are
two leading conditions to be taken into account — the kind
of water, and the kind of fuel to be used.

Wood refuse alone is not a severe fuel, but when mixed
with bituminous coal it makes a very hot fire, which from
its intensity and its irregularity may be considered destruc-
tive to & boiler ; to obviate this the boiler must be kept
clean and should be made of simple form, admitting of
easy access to every part.

With hard lime water, which is commonly found through-
out the middle States, this last-named condition becomes
a necessity ; no complicated multiflued or fire-box boiler
can last long when there is much lime in the feed water ;
the advantage 'gained by the thinner metal in the tubes
or by the fire-box is soon lost through incrustation, while
the original cost, subsequent repairs, cost of cleaning,
care, management, and risk, are all in favour of the plain
cylinder boiler without flues, or with flues that can be

14 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

reached for the purpose of cleaning both internally and
externally.

The irregularity of firing with wood fuel when a regu-
lating damper is not used makes steam room desirable ;
this is seldom obtained in a multinued boiler, where the
contracted heating surface generally leads to a propor-
tionately contracted steam space, and this, with the ordi-
nary mode of firing, has the steam "up" and "down"
continually, causing a derangement of the work, and having
a most destructive effect upon the boiler itself from the
intermittent strain upon the metal. The heating surface
and steam room, or in other words the capacity of a boiler,
should be one-third more for a wood manufactory where
the cuttings and shavings are burned, than where coal is
exclusively used for fuel.

Although in opposition to a popular prejudice, the
writer recommends for most cases a plain cylinder boiler
without flues of any kind, carefully set in a first-class
furnace, and made long enough to gain the full effect of
the fire. There is, however, not much use in recommend-
ing a thing which it is known will not be applied. There
is a prejudice against cylinder boilers throughout most
parts of the United States that prevents their use in a
great many cases where they would give nearly as good a
result as those with flues, and have other advantages
which all must admit.

Following the general practice of the middle and western
States we present some views respecting the construction
of furnaces for double-flued cylinder boilers.

The plans set forth in the Figures which follow, have
for general objects, a tight furnace, a cool place to fire, and
a saving in first cost, with greater safety from fire. Such
a furnace as is here represented requires better mason- work
than ordinary furnaces, and should have a thorough

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

15

lining of fire-brick about the fire-bed. The whole amount
of brickwork is greater than when an iron fire-front
is used. As a modification of steam fur- FIG. 5.

naces it may be considered adapted to wood-
manufacturing establishments, because of
its safety from fire and the avoidance of
heat by the fireman ; the latter, considering
the attention and time that is needed to fire
with shavings, is no small object.

Fig. 5 shows a longitudinal section
through a furnace built with its end oppo-
site to, and combined with, the stack, so that
no breeching is needed, and the firing is
effected from the side, as seen in the side
elevation, Fig. 6, without exposure to the
heat, and with more safety from danger of
fire. The ash-pit opens on the opposite side
of the furnace generally, outside the build-
ing, where there is no danger of the shavings
catching fire while feeding the furnace or
when the attendant is absent. A slide
damper and the lever to work it are shown
on the front of the stack, Fig. 6.

A cross-section through the furnace at

the bridge wall is shown at Fig. 7, with the covering
over the boiler to retain the heat and to guard against
danger from sparks. The filling, or covering, is of sand,

16

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

Boiler, 44 inches diameter, 28 feet long.

Two flues, 16 inches diameter.

Height of steam chimney, 60 to 75 feet.

Area of flue in the chimney, 500 inches.

Area of boiler flues, 400 inches.

Area of throat at the bridge wall, 400 to 450 inches.

Area of grate surface, 16 square feet.

Area of the flue behind the bridge wall, 7 to 10 feet.

Clearance on the sides of the boiler, 4| inches.

Clearance at back end of the boiler, 14 inches.

Size of fire-door, 15 x 30 inches.

Depth of ash-pit, 24 inches.

Width of ash-pit, 42 inches.

Ash-door (air inlet), 700 to 800 inches.

Thickness of furnace wall?, single, 13 inches.

Thickness of furnace walls, if double, 17 inches.

Depth from boiler to grate, 18 to 22 inches.

Clearance between boiler and chimney, 24 inches.

The fire-room floor to be level with the grates.

n — r

FIG. 6.

earth, or ashes, instead of mortar aiid brick, which is liable
to crack, and allow sparks to escape, when the damper
is shut, which is one of the most common
sources of fire about wood factories where
steam power is employed.

The following dimensions are for a furnace
of this kind, arranged for about 40-horse
power, and sufficient to drive a mill such as
shown in Fig. 7.

' I — I L

A covering of loose earth or sand, as shown in Fig. 7,
has other advantages besides the safety which it ensures

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 17

from fire ; it is cheap, easy to remove and renew, and a
good non-conductor of heat. With a tight furnace covered
in this manner, it is comparatively safe
to erect drying rooms over a boiler, if
the wood is kept at some distance above
the furnace — say, 5 feet, or more.

The usual method of firing with wood
shavings is wrong ; there are seldom any
means employed to regulate the fire or
the quantity of steam generated, except
by the amount of fuel that is fed to
the furnace ; a custom not only wrong, because of the
waste of fuel it occasions, but because of the irregularity
it causes in the pressure of the steam and the increased
amount of labour required for firing. Without some means
of controlling the fire there is, at intervals, an intense heat
which generates more steam than is needed; the fuel is
soon burnt out, and the cold air allowed to pass through
the bare grates, until the heating effect of the fire is in
part counteracted. When fresh fuel is added it at once
burns up, or, as is often the case with a strong draught,
nearly all the lighter shavings are drawn over the
bridge wall before they are burned. An experiment for
a single day in the use of a regulating damper will be
sufficient to convince anyone of its advantages. The
furnace should be kept full of fuel, no matter what its
character, and the steam regulated by the draught, either
with a slide damper operated by the fireman, or what is
much better, with a steam damper that regulates the
draught without any attention.

There are perhaps no simple contrivances that save
so much labour and money, so uniformly perform their
functions satisfactorily, are so much neglected and so

IU

18 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

little known, as steam-damper regulators. No one who
uses them would think of doing without them, and but
few who do not have them ever think of their importance.

There is no case where steam dampers are not needed,
but nowhere else are they so important as to regulate the
fire in the steam furnaces of wood-working establishments,
where the fuel is of a mixed and inflammable character
and cannot be fed with sufficient regularity to keep the
steam at a uniform pressure. The original patent on these
damper regulators has expired, and they are now sold at a
low price by various makers.

In arranging steam plant for wood manufactories pro-
vision should be made to guard against freezing in the
winter. Carrying out and bringing in such bulky material
as lumber always makes a shop cold, especially in the
lower story where the steam power is placed, and nothing
is more annoying than to be froze up. A little over-
sight in this way often leads to expensive delay, when a
few dollars would have saved all if it had been considered
in time.

Another very important matter in the arrangement of
steam furnaces about wood mills is to have them con-
venient to fire. We may provide against heat by neither
using a smoke breeching nor an iron fire front, but if the
fireman has to stand and shovel in shavings through a
small door breast high, only half has been done that can
be accomplished to render the firing easy. The fire-doors
should be level with the fire-room floor, so that the
shavings and sawdust may be shoved into the furnace
with a large scraper ; the doorway should be not less than
30 inches wide, the doors well lined to keep them cool,
and the whole floor in front of the furnace made of iron
plates, so that the fuel may lie about the door without

19

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK. a

danger of catching fire, and avoid the trouble of con-
tinually sweeping up, which would otherwise be neces-
sary. There is not the least objection to arranging a
furnace in this manner, in fact there is a decided gain
in convenience of access to every part, except to the
ash-pit, which is but a small matter.

SHAFTING FOB WOOD SHOPS.

If any machine operator of long experience, or, for that
matter, of short experience, were asked what occasioned
the greater number of accidents about wood shops and
what caused most delays, he would be sure to reply,
" The line shafting."

For a shaft to break by crystallization from bending —
to be torn loose by winding belts — to have pulleys or
couplings come loose, is a common cause of detention and
expense. The couplings are mentioned last, although if
ranked as to the amount of detention and trouble they
cause, they should have been named first ; but whether it
be coupling, pulleys, hangers, or shafting, the trouble is
generally with the main line.

If we go to a machinist who manufactures shafting,
and inquire whether there is any special difficulty in the
way of making it safe from derangement or accident, he
will answer, " Certainly not."

Granting this, we have either a paradox, or very bad
practice, and as a paradox is rare in mechanics, the latter
is the safer conclusion.

Shafts for transmitting motion and power are the oldest
of mechanical appliances, and should, as we would suppose,
for this reason, be among the most perfect, but this is a

c 2

20

claim to which they can by no means pretend; and the
great diversity of the plans for couplings, hangers, and
bearings by different makers attests the fact that the
manufacture of shafting is by no means a perfected art.

There are but few places where line shafting is so severely
used as in wood shops; the usually small diameter, with
the high speed, the wide belts, and the heavy duty that
it generally has to perform, are all conditions that are
more or less avoided in other manufacturing establish-
ments.

Machines when suddenly started offer a resistance in
proportion to the power employed in driving them, and
measured by this rule there are but few machines in
common use so heavy to start and causing so great a
strain upon the shafting, as planing machines and circular
saws. There are of course many that require as much
power, but to include all conditions, such as the speed of
the belts and the usual means of shifting them, with the
sudden stopping which often occurs, there is hardly a
parallel among manufacturing machinery. A planing
machine or saw that consumes eight to ten horse power
to drive it will have the belts shifted instantly from the
loose to the tight pulley, and the only reason the shafting
does not give way is that such machines are generally
but weakly belted, and the belts slip until the machine
gets into motion. The same thing in effect occurs in over-
feeding saws, so that the shafting is continually subjected
to a succession of torsional strains, that will soon search
out the bad jobs in fitting couplings and pulleys.

In preparing plans for a wood-working mill, the shafting
should, for reasons already given, go across the building
whenever practicable. By belting from one line to the
other at one side of the room the whole power is not trans-

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

21

mitted through the couplings, as in the case of one con-
tinuous shaft to drive all the machinery. The work is
also divided more evenly throughout the several lines, and
this does away with the supposed necessity of having the
line shafting in sections of various diameters, which pre-
vents the interchange of pulleys from one shaft to another,
and often leads to expense and trouble.

The first section of shafting carrying the main driving
pulley should have a diameter equal to one-fifth the width
of the main driving belt, and be supported at each side
of the main pulley ; to make a rule, this section should
not be more than twenty diameters long between bearings.

Fig. 8 shows a good arrangement of line shafting for
a mill about 50 feet by 150 feet, with three cross lines of
shafting.

FIG. 8.

I {
1 I

i i
i
i

4 ^

1

1

]

*

i 1

I

£nj

r - 1

|j 7E|

pII^.-"_

EEFEKENCES.

1. — The main driving pulley.
2. — Belt to the engine.
3 and 4. — Second driving pulleys.
5 and 6. — Third driving pulleys.

Having the first or driving sections 6 feet long, and four
additional sections in each line 10 feet long, is a good
arrangement for a mill of the dimensions given.

The advantages gained by this plan over that of having

22 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

a continuous line or a single line running the other way
of the building are :• —

First. — Only a part of the power is transmitted through
the couplings.

Second. — The speed of the different lines can be varied
and to some extent accommodate machines of different
classes, which can be arranged with this view.

Third. — A part of the shafting can be stopped for
repairs, or to put on belts or pulleys without stopping the
whole ; in other words, about two-thirds of the works may
be kept going in such cases.

Fourth. — With this arrangement the shafting can be of
a uniform diameter throughout, except the first or driving
sections.

Fifth. — The machines stand lengthwise the building,
and the course of the stuff is in this direction, as it should
be, and as it must be, for it is no uncommon thing to find
planing and other machines driven with quarter turn
belting to accomplish this, when the shafting is placed the
other way.

For wood shops, 2J-inch and 3-inch shafting are the best
sizes; 2^-inch shafts are as small as any should be, and
they should not, without some important reason, exceed 3
inches in diameter.

A line of 2J-inch shafting will run safely and well at
250 revolutions a minute, or a 3-inch line will run 200
revolutions a minute, if the bearings are properly made
and it is kept in line.

Pulleys should be turned true and balanced — balanced
perfectly, no matter what their speed.

The effect of an unbalanced pulley is as its speed, but
it is never known where pulleys may have to be used in
changing, and the only safe rule is to have every pulley

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 23

carefully balanced, no matter what the speed may be at
which they run.

Pulleys should be as light as possible, both as a matter
of economy and convenience. Our best makers are, how-
ever, making them light enough, so that a specification
as to weight need hardly be given with an order for pulleys.

As to couplings, they should be adjustable or com-
pressive, not keyed on, or wedged on, for only such a key
should be used as will not keep a solid coupling on.
Adjustable couplings are now very generally used for line
shafting in America, and certainly there is no place where
they are more needed than in our wood shops, where there
is such a continual changing and adding of machines and
pulleys, that the shaft has constantly to be disconnected
for the purpose.

Hangers to support the line shafting in wood shops
should always have their bearings pivoted, and adjustable
vertically. The heavy loads of lumber that are piled on
upper floors depress them between the posts, and a line
shaft requires to be often levelled up. If the bearings
have a vertical adjustment in the hanger frames, and are
moved by screws, as they should be, it is a small matter to
take a ladder, a level, and a wrench, and go along the
line to level it. A hundred feet of shafting may be
adjusted in this manner in an hour, if the larger belts
are thrown off to relieve it from strain, and the shafting
is straight and true. The operation is so simple and so
generally understood that it need not be explained here.

Shafting is not liable to get out of line horizontally,
unless from the strain of belts ; it is, however, well to line
up as often as twice a year, to be sure that all is right. It
has been in times past a common thing to allow shafting
to run as long as it would go, without adjusting, and

24

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

then stop the works for a day or two to line up ; which
is unnecessary and only a loss of time. A shaft may be
levelled by almost anyone when the hangers are properly
made, and can be done at noon, or after stopping in the
evening, without interfering with the business at all.

FIG. 9.

KEFERENCES.

D. — The ceiling, to which the hangers are bolted.
a a a. — The line shaft.

c c c. — Plumb-lines resting against the shaft, near to the bearings.
dd. — A horizontal line stretched below the shaft.

FIG. 10.

To line a shaft horizontally is
but little more trouble if the bear-
ings or hangers can be moved in
that direction.

Suspended hangers should have
the bolt-holes slotted for an inch
or more of movement, and post
hangers should have movable bear-
ings that permit side adjustment.

Assuming that there is some
means of moving the shaft hori-
zontally, a good plan of adjusting it is by suspending a
number of plumb-lines that will bear against one side of

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 25

the shaft, and reach down low enough to be sighted from
the floor, as shown in Figs. 9, 10 ; or for greater accuracy
a strong line may be stretched about 5 feet from the floor,
as at d d, to gauge the plumb-lines from.

This lower line can at the beginning be set within about
one-eighth of an inch of the two plumb-lines at the ends,
and the rest can then be adjusted to the same position by
moving the bearings ; or the end bearings can be also
adjusted, as the case may require.

A ball of strong packing thread, and half-a-dozen or
more old screw nuts for the plumb-lines, make the outfit,
and the job can be well executed, at but little expense
and time, if the hangers are properly made, and erected
so as to be adjusted without trouble.

This kind of work must be to a great extent a matter
of judgment; anyone who depends upon special know-
ledge, or what he may have seen done and been instructed
in, will not be so successful in millwrighting as he would
be if he proceeds boldly, using his own judgment as to
plans, and reasoning thoroughly about the work before
beginning it.

There are many ways of adjusting line shafting ; some
of them tedious and expensive, and some useless. The
one suggested is the most simple that can be given, and
is accurate enough for all practical purposes.

ERECTING COUNTERSHAFTING.

If a machine operator or even a regular millwright
were to be set' at a job to test his judgment and abilities,
there is perhaps no other that could be selected better
than erecting a countershaft.

26 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

The ways of erecting, all of which may in the end
produce the same result, are so various as to render it
difficult to give rules that will be generally approved of.
The advantages of the different plans can only be tested
by the time required to do the work, assuming, of course,
that it is to be properly done in all cases. It may require
two, and often requires three, men a whole day to put up
a countershaft ; which in another case will be put up in
two hours by one man, assisted only in holding and
lifting.

In erecting a countershaft, what have first to be deter-
mined are the position of the machine it is to drive, and
whether the belting is clear. When a line shaft is crowded
with pulleys, it often requires great care to place the
countershafts so that belts will not interfere with each
other ; it is no uncommon thing for a shaft to be put up,
and then the discovery made that belts interfere with
others on the opposite side of the line shaft.

Be careful in starting, that is the great point, not only
in putting up shafts, but in all other mechanical opera-
tions that involve calculations and accurate measurements.

For example, let us suppose that a countershaft is to be
erected, and go through the various operations, one at a
time. Beginning with the hanger-plates, these should be
of hard wood, long enough to reach from two to four
joists, as the weight of the shaft and belting may re-
quire ; their width should be from one and one-half to
twice the width of the hanger base, and their thickness, as
an approximate rule, one-fifth the drop of the hanger.
When the joists are of hemlock, or harder wood, and
three inches or more thick, almost any kind of shafting
can be hung with safety on wood screws, or lag screws, as
they are sometimes called, passing through the hanger-

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK. 27

plate, and screwed directly into the joist. These screws
should be of good size, not less than | inch diameter in
any case, and long enough to pass into the joist a distance
at least equal to the thickness of the hanger-plate. A
plate three inches thick requires, with cast-iron washers,
screws that are seven inches long; if one in each joist,
| inch diameter, if two in each joist, f inch or f inch will
do for ordinary countershafts.

Having the hanger-plates ready, next mount the shaft
in the hangers and invert them, to stand on a level floor,
Fig. 11, and after settling the shaft to see that the
bearings are not cramped, and that the hangers stand
fair on their base, measure between the bolt holes accu-
rately, or what is better, cut a short strip of wood to the
length between the centres, marked e in the Figure.

FIG. 11.

Floor.

If the shaft is to be placed to suit some pulley on the
line shaft, measure from the centre of the hanger next
the loose pulley the distance to the centre between the
tight and loose pulleys ; this should also be marked on
the stick, as the base for the position of the shaft, we
will term it the driving belt line, it is the distance
marked a, Fig. 11.

This belt line most then be determined and scribed on

28

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

the joist ; it is easily found from a pulley, or by measuring
from a wall or girder that crosses the line shaft at right
angles.

Placing the measuring stick with this base mark, the
centre between the pulleys, upon the belt line, next set
out at each end for the wood screws or bolts that are to
hold the hanger-plates, bore the hanger-plates and screw
them up at one end, but not hard against the joist, leave a
half-inch or more for packing, when levelling up ; then
set the plates at right angles across the joist, and mark
the position of the joists so as to bore through the plates
for the other screws, which can be done by swinging the
plates around, and without taking them down. Again
set the plates across the joist as accurately as possible by

FIG. 12.

means of a carpenter's square, and mark the holes on the
joist for the remaining wood screws. In screwing up the
plates they can be brought level by furrowing down on
their top, with pieces of wood split in two or notched to

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 29

accommodate the wood screws, placed between the plates
and the joist. To mount the hangers, if they have pivot
bearings, as all ought to have, bore through the hanger-
plate for one bolt by measurement; no great accuracy
is needed in this, unless the shaft has to come laterally to
a particular line, which is seldom the case. Screw up
one hanger with a through bolt, then remove the pulleys
from the shaft, put it in the hangers, then prop the loose
one, or both, if needed, with a brace resting on the floor
or a stage, as shown at Fig. 12. For the next operation,
procure a pole or strip of wood c, Fig. 13, long enough to

FIG. 13.
d

reach from the countershaft to the line shaft, cut a notch
in the end, or drive a strong spike in the side, and let
it rest on the line shaft, at a, and extend to the counter-
shaft at d. By moving alternately from one end of the
countershaft to the other, and driving the loose hanger to
adjust it, a parallel is obtained, much truer than by lines
and measurement, and in a tenth part of the time. The
pole can be marked at the centres of the countershaft
at each trial until the ends correspond. Then bore the
three remaining holes for the hanger-bolts, put the pul-
leys on the shaft, and mount the whole in place. Level
the shaft by using a plumb line alongside the pulleys,
which, if they are at all true, will be found a more accurate
plan than to use a spirit level on the shaft itself. The
job is now finished, and there is a question as to which
is the greater labour, to erect a shaft or to describe the
operation. With a good pair of trestles at hand, and
wood screws and hanger-plates ready, an ordinary counter-

30 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

shaft for belts from three to six inches wide should be put
up in from one and one-half to three hours' time, by one
man and an assistant. The time of erecting, and the
accuracy with which a shaft can be set, as well as the
facility with which it can be kept in line, depend greatly
upon how the hangers are made. All bearings in wood-
working establishments should be pivoted ; the depression
of floors, which must take place from piling stuff, is
continually altering the bearings in a greater or less
degree, and if they are rigid, the bearing is spoiled by
the least change. Such nicety is not required at low
speeds, but when shafts carrying heavy strained belts have
a speed of 750 or more revolutions a minute, every pre-
caution must be observed to have them run without
heating. If the bearings are pivoted, and arranged to be
adjusted vertically on the hanger, it is but little trouble to
keep shafts level. The bolt holes in the hanger-plate if
slotted to allow for horizontal adjustment, will answer for
pendent hangers without having the bearings movable in
the brackets.

The transverse strength of the brackets should be suffi-
cient to break the belting, if not, there is always danger
of the whole being torn down by the winding of belts ; and
as the belts are generally twice as strong as those used in
other shops, the hangers should be the same.

SETTING MACHINES.

Setting machines belongs to the same class of work as
erecting shafting, and is much the same thing — a matter
of judgment, rather than one of acquired skill.

The only general rule that can be given, is to set them

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 31

level, with their shafts and spindles parallel to the line
shaft. There are, however, many plans of doing this, and
a word on the subject will not be amiss.

When a new shop is built, and the line shaft erected,
or when its position is determined, and before it is
erected, each floor of the building should be scribed with
what we will term a machine line, that is, a base from
which the engine, the line shaft, countershafts, and
machines may be set, independent of each other, and yet
with accuracy. To do this, take the centre line through
the building both ways, and scribe it on the floors, not with
a scribe awl alone, but with a wagon maker's scribing
hook, that will cut a deep groove. After striking with
a chalk line, tack down a straight edge, and score the
lines with the scribing hook, so that they will remain
as long as the floor lasts, or at least as long as machines
are to be added. Plumb up or down, as the case may be,
and scribe each floor in this way ; whether machines are
to be set on floors or not, there will sure to be some use
for these base lines. If there are ground floors, scribe
the lines on the walls, drive stakes, or put them on the
ceiling ; have them somewhere, in each story, and in each
room. When these lines are once made, the setting of
machines becomes a simple matter, for lines parallel to,
or at right angles to, them are easy to lay out ; and shafts
or spindles can be set true by measurement as in Fig. 13,
if they are first levelled.

The common practice when a shaft or machine is to be
erected is to square it from something which has pre-
viously been set by something else, on the principle of
measuring by succession, a practice no mechanic would
think of in other cases.

If machines have iron frames and stand on masonry,

32 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

they can be fixed by running melted lead or brimstone
under the feet after setting and levelling them. On earth
floors, however, it is not necessary to build masonry for
any except reciprocating machines. Stakes of locust,
cedar, or mulberry wood, set in the earth from three
feet to four feet deep, and then sawn off level on top,
make almost as good a foundation for any machine as
masonry. It is, however, exceptional to find machines
set on the ground, a plan that has nothing to recom-
mend it, for when attempted there has to be a floor over
a great part of the room, that usually costs as much as a
complete floor would, if it had been laid down at the
beginning.

BELTING FOR WOOD MACHINERY.

Kules that apply to belts in general are applicable
to those used in wood-working establishments, yet there
are some conditions to be taken into account that are
peculiar and exceptional. The belting is dry in all cases,
and often has shavings or sawdust passing under the sur-
faces, preventing contact on the pulleys, and so reducing
the tractile power. Besides, the belting moves at such
high speeds that it prevents contact on the pulleys, espe-
cially when of small diameter.

For these reasons, the belting should be much wider
than would be needed to transmit an equal amount of
power in other establishments.

Belts to drive wood machines require to be at least one-
third wider than for metal - cutting or other machines
where the belts can be kept soft or moist. Even twice
the width will not be too much in some cases.

For main belts, india-rubbre is preferable to leather.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 33

It has advantages in driving capacity, in running true,
and, if well made, it is more durable ; its merits are, as
a rule, not understood, although it has been in use for
the last twenty years. The ordinary gum belting of com-
merce may not be as durable as leather ; both the webbing
and the gum may be of poor quality ; but if an order is
sent to a first-class house for a good gum belt, heavy enough
for its work, there is no leather belt that will equal it. The
tractile power in a wood shop, where the surfaces must run
dry, is at least one-third greater than that of leather belts,
and the tension can be proportionately less, or the belt so
much narrower to do the same work. The best plan, how-
ever, is to keep the width and avoid tension, which, if too
great, is apt to break the belt joints and heat the bear-
ings of the shafts.

For joining gum belting there is no better plan than
with malleable iron hooks. Clamps, with plates on the
back, and other contrivances of a similar kind, make the
joint too rigid, and also make a disagreeable noise in
passing over metal pulleys. Cement joints that are gene-
rally recommended by the manufacturers of this belting
cannot well be made by those unskilled in the matter, and
are not necessary except for heavy driving belts.

What is wanted is a smooth joint, quickly and cheaply
made, and one that will not pull out ; such a joint can be
made with hooks. A belt, 12 inches wide, can in this way
be put together in a good workmanlike manner in ten
minutes, and the joint will stand for a long time under any
strain that a belt ought to bear, whether it be of gum or
leather.

To make the joint, first cut the belt square ; then lay out
the lines for the holes, so that when the ends of the belt
are placed together the distance between them will be a

34

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

little more than the length at a, Fig. 14. Punch the holes,
then lap the ends, as in Fig. 15, and drive the hooks by
keeping a bar of iron, a hammer, or some other weighty
piece beneath the belt. After the points of the hooks are
through the belt at both ends, the joint can be butted
together by bending the belt backward from the joint
until the ends will pass, and then straightening it. To

FIG. 14.

FIG. 15.

FIG. 15a.

clinch the hooks use an anvil bar, Fig. 15a, closing first
one end and then the other with a light hammer, so that
the belt will be firmly clamped, lut not cut, with the hooks.
In this last operation lies the secret of making these
hook joints successfully ; if the hooks are closed properly
they will not tear out the holes like lacing, but will
pull the belt asunder at the holes, proving the joint to be

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 35

as strong as any other portion of the belt, less the
weakening effect of the holes. If the hooks are hammered
down too hard they cut into the belt and weaken it.
After the joint is closed the hooks may be bent to conform
to the curvature of the pulleys they run over. If one
is large and the other small, the hooks should be bent
to fit a curve between them in size, or, if different, to fit
the smaller pulley.

That belt hooks have not become more popular is owing
to the careless manner in which they have been used. A
belt may be fastened in almost any manner with lacing, and
hold for a time ; but it. is not so with hooks ; they must
be put in carefully to stand. Properly done, they make
one of the best joints, and if improperly done, perhaps the
very worst.

The size of the hooks must be adapted to the thickness
and width of the belting ; the distance from the joint to the
holes should be at least equal to three thicknesses of
the belt.

The width of driving belts and their length should be
such, that when at angles lower than 30 degrees they will
do their work without tension on the slack side. By no
tension, is meant that the belt should be loose enough to
run in a curve. Main driving belts are here alluded to,
and particular stress is laid on this matter, for no good
result can be attained with a heavy belt that is not
capable of doing its work mainly by its weight.

Speaking of weight, it may be remarked that in making
comparisons of cost between leather and india-rubber belt-
ing, the weight should be taken into account. As a rule,
single leather belts wider than 6 to 8 inches are not to be
compared in weight to gum belts, and gum belts of two and
three ply, with heavy cotton webbing, correspond to double

D 2

36 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

leather belts, which are usually double the price. A leather
belt wider than 8 inches should always be double, no matter
what its purpose, unless it is to run at a very high speed
on small pulleys, which need never occur if machinery is
properly arranged. A single leather belt will not keep
straight; and speaking of the ordinary belting of com-
merce, the wider it is, the greater the tendency to become
crooked and irregular.

For the extreme high speeds sometimes necessary in
wood machines, belts of cotton webbing can be used with
advantage. Heavy saddler's webbing coated with beeswax
makes a belt that is very light, and has a high tractile
power. When used the pulleys must be true and smooth,
and the belts kept clear of flanges, or anything that will
produce a rubbing action, as this soon destroys them.

In the change from round belts, once almost exclusively
used, to flat ones, we have no doubt gone too far ; a round
belt is in many cases much cheaper and better. Such belts
are extensively used in England and on the Continent,
but are rarely seen on American machines. For the first
movers to drive the feed works of planers and other ma-
chines, they are better than flat belts, especially when
cones are used for graduating the speed, and when they
have to run through shavings or sawdust.

In the treatment of belts for wood machines nearly all
that can be done is to keep them soft; a coat of castor-
oil now and then laid on with a brush is a good plan for
softening them. Tallow is as good, but more difficult to
apply. For gum belts no surface coating can be so good
as the india-rubber itself, which is soluble in, and infused
by animal oils ; as they do not need softening they should
be left alone, as the safest plan.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 37

HANDLING MATERIAL.

What proportion of the labour of a wood-working esta-
blishment is directed to moving and handling material,
cannot be stated, but that it is a fair share of the whole
anyone must admit. Handling material is one of those
things which cannot be done to any extent by power ; and in
machine operations, the greater part of the labour is usually
handling the stuff. There can be little information given
about handling long lumber, but the following suggestions
in regard to short stuff or work in process will enable the
operator to get along without so much handling, and car-
rying the stuff from place to place.

In arranging machines, always set them so as to leave
truck-room between and around them ; no matter how
crowded the room, this should be done; the floor-room
that will be saved by piling stuff on trucks will more than
make up for room lost in the passages.

In furniture and chair shops, carriage shops, turning
shops, door, sash and blind shops, and in nearly all of our
wood-working factories, the material can be kept on trucks
instead of on the floor, with two important advantages
gained ; it may at any time be moved from place to
place, and can readily be reached without stooping to the
floor.

We may also mention the system, order, saving from
bruises, and the facility for counting pieces, as objects
gained by the truck system, which is suggested.

The trucks for machine rooms should be made of uniform
size for each story ; there is no use in depending upon a
particular truck being kept for a special use ; the rule is,
to take the first one at hand, and there is but little use in
having different sizes. These trucks can be built as shown

38

THE OPERATOR S HANDBOOK.

in Figs. 16, 17, for upper floors, \vhere the stuff is cut out
and in process, and for anything except heavy loads of
lumber, which require a truck that is lower in height and
much stronger. The main frame should be of hard wood,

FIG. 16.

<§>

FIG. 17.

I

I

(Fil ***_

1

about 4x4 inches, the cross rails set in 3^ inches from
the end, with tenons to keep them in place. Two through-
bolts f in. diameter along the inside of the cross rails
hold the frame firmly together, and yet allow it to spring
in passing over blocks or uneven floors.

The common mistake in making trucks is in having
them too rigid ; they will not last long or work well, unless

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

39

made to yield at the corners. The planking across the top
can be nailed to the side rails ; it should be 1^ or \\ in.
thick, of white wood— sycamore, or some other tough wood,
that will stand bruising, and will not split ; even pine is
better than ash or oak. The standards should be ar-
ranged to go either at the ends or on the sides, as shown in
the plan, Fig. 17. Figs. 18 and 19 show a complete set of
irons for a truck 4 feet to 5 feet long and 2 feet to 3 feet

FIG. 18.

FIG. 19.

wide, consisting of four cast-iron brackets with a flange at
the top to be fastened with wood screws ; the swivel piece
may be cast of malleable iron ; the small screw is to keep
the swivel from falling out when the truck is lifted ; the
roller can be of cast iron; the staples are for the sides
and ends of the truck, as in Fig. 17 ; these staples should
be forged from iron about 1J X f in., and large enough to
receive a tenon 2-J x li ^n-

With from six to twelve of these trucks on a floor, or
at least one for each machine, half the handling, and
nearly all the carrying, is saved. In working stuff, two
are needed at each machine, so that the pieces can be
taken from one and placed on another as they are
worked.

40 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

When material is to be moved from story to story, the
trucks can be run upon the platform of the hoist, and
with their loads raised or lowered to where they are
wanted. A boy with one of these trucks will move a
thousand pounds the length or width of the shop, and up
or down through several stories, at the same cost that a
single load can be carried by a porter, to say nothing of the
damage by having the stuff thrown down upon the floor,
and the loss of time required to gather it up again. This
system of roller trucks is to some extent in use ; but it is
exceptional, and rarely ever carried out so as to realize
the greatest advantage from it.

A system half carried out is as no system at all, one
or two trucks in a large shop are only an annoyance ; the
men lose more time during a year in searching or wait-
ing for them, and in disputing about them, than a dozen
additional new ones would cost.

To say that a wood-working establishment which has
more than one story should have a power hoist, is to state
what everyone knows, but not a thing which everyone has
estimated the advantages of. The question of saving and
earnings will be considered farther on, and here we will
only say, have a hoist whenever there is work for it to do.
A wood platform or cage, with a wire rope and winding drum
driven by belts and a tangent wheel, is a cheap and simple
plan for such hoists ; the gearing is now furnished by dif-
ferent makers like any other machines, self-contained and
ready to erect, including the cage and guides if wanted.
Be sure to have a reliable safety catch to prevent falling,
and avoid all ingenious triggers and self-acting apparatus
that can be dispensed with. Put up a caution notice with
directions for operating the machinery at each hatch, and
leave the rest to the judgment and good sense of the work-

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 41

men. There is no machinery so dangerous as that which
pretends to dispense with care and caution on the part of
the operator ; and the greater number of accidents with
hoists come from that class known as the absolute safety.
Accidents rarely happen with the old outside chain hoist,
although it is without question very dangerous ; the reason
is that we watch it and run no risks.

In connection with the arrangement of a mill at Fig. 1,
a tramway through the centre of the building is men-
tioned. This plan is a good one, and the best and
cheapest in a large mill or car shop; but in furniture
factories, chair factories, door and sash shops, and jobbing
mills, caster trucks such as those just described for
machine rooms, only stronger, are even more convenient
than the tramway.

The general means of moving material may be said to
consist in tramways for horizontal movement in straight
lines, hoists for vertical movement, and caster trucks for
distributing in irregular lines ; however, in any but the
largest mills, and for any but long and heavy lumber,
the horizontal movement and the distributing can be
combined, and the fixed tramway dispensed with. In
such ' cases the trucks to be used in connection with
cutting out saws, planing machines, and for first floor
purposes generally, should be framed of stuff about 5x5
inches, and be correspondingly heavy in all their parts;
they should be from six to eight feet long, with three
wheels instead of four, the two forward wheels on a fixed
axis, and the rear one swivelled. Such trucks should be
strong enough to carry at least 2|- tons, and their wheels
six to eight inches diameter, with from 2^- to 3^- inches
face. There is nothing peculiar about their construction
that calls for diagrams to explain.

42 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

By laying a cheap plank floor from the mill room to,
or through, the board yard, such trucks can be run out
and loaded at any distance from the shop, and men will
prefer to push in a thousand feet of stuff in this way to
carrying two boards that will not weigh 50 Ibs. each.

This simple matter of trucks is dwelt upon because it is
perhaps the most neglected of all things about wood
shops. We exhaust our ingenuity in devising machines to
work stuff at a rapid rate, but make no provision to bring
the stuff to or from the machines; and with the exception
of the large lumber mills along the north-western Lake
coast, and the very largest mills in cities, it is unusual to
find any means of handling material that at all com-
pares with the completeness in other details.

Of tramways little need be said ; all know what they
are for, and how they are made. The difference from
trucks is that they can be used in one line only, and that
the cars require less power to move them than trucks
with casters. In many cases it may be expedient to
have both, a tramway and trucks, but whether both, or
even additional means of handling, are required, be sure
and provide whatever will save carrying stuff or throwing
it upon the floors.

CLEARING WOOD SHOPS.

Clearing shops of cuttings, shavings, and sawdust to a
certain extent belongs to the same branch as moving and
handling material, and the same rules will apply in many
respects.

There is, however, this difference, that from recent
improvements it is probable that the driving power will
in future be used to clear shops, while we can hardly

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

hope to have it handle the lumber. There is at this time,
in fact, no need of saying any thing about plans for clearing-
shops except by pneumatic fans, for they are in general
use, and we may safely say, where they are not in use
they should be or will be. These pneumatic conductors
are now so well known that it will not be necessary to
go into a description of their general arrangement, which
the reader is presumed to be familiar with. The writer
having been personally concerned in the introduction of
this system in England and the continent of Europe,
and having built pneumatic apparatus, that have been
in constant operation since 1862, has no fears in recom-
mending the system as practical and economical, apart
from its convenience and its sanitary advantages in getting
rid of the fine dust so prejudicial to health, and one of the
most objectionable features of operating wood machines.

The fans must be plain, strong machines, large enough
to perform their work easily ; the vanes strong enough to
break up sticks that may pass into the fan. The bearings
should be outside the casing and pipes ; a common plan
is to have one bearing inside the induction pipe, where
the oil is at once absorbed, and there is a continual
danger of fire from the bearing heating. Fans made for
ordinary blowing purposes are not fitted for this use. We
give at Figs. 20 and 21, side and front elevations of the
fans used in England.

The casing is cast in one piece J in. thick ; the vanes
are of forged or malleable iron ; the shaft is If in. diameter
of steel running in brass bearings outside the casing.

The size of the fans for clearing wood shops ..must
depend upon the number of inlets, openings, or, as we
will call them, leaks into the induction pipes. A blower
20 in. diameter and 5-inch vanes, would clear the largest
mill, so far as conducting the shavings and dust, but could

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

not maintain a current strong enough, after supplying the
inlets, to lift the shavings. For this reason, it is easy to
see the importance of having the collecting hoods fit

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 45

well, and avoiding all possible leaks into the pipes. The
writer is at the present time engaged in experiments
to test the practicability of exhausting the air from
the magazine by fans so as to induce currents in the
collecting pipes and avoid the necessity of passing the
shavings through the fan. It is almost impossible to give
any rule for the size of pipes without assuming some
special premises to base such dimensions on. We will,
however, say that starting with 5 inches diameter for the
smallest size for a main pipe, there should be added at
least 10 inches of sectional area for each machine that is
connected, except surfacing or dimension planing ma-
chines, which will need twice as much.

Galvanized or zinc-coated shset iron from 18 to 24
gauge, is a good material for condueting-pipes.

The elbows should be made with a radius of 10 inches
or more on the short side, and everything avoided in the
arrangement of the pipes that will endanger their choking.
When machines are not in use, it is well to close off the
induction pipes with a ball of paper or waste ; dampers-
or valves can be made in the pipes for this purpose, but if
constructed so that they will not obstruct the pipe when it
is in use, they are expensive, and unnecessary except for
floor pipes, noticed farther on.

It is often desirable to have the fine dust separated
from the shavings and sawdust ; even if they are only
to be used for fuel, and the magazine or shavings room
should be arranged to allow the dust to pass off at the
top, as in Fig. 22.

The magazines should be fireproof throughout, and
extend above the building to such a height that the
dust will not be carried through the windows after it
has escaped at the top. As it is often expensive to
carry the brickwork high enough to effect this object, a

46

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

sheet-iron flue or uptake can be used, as shown in Fig. 22.
The sectional area of this flue when used should be
TIG. 22. from ten to fifteen times as

large as the pipe leading into
the magazine, otherwise the
current will be strong enough
to not only carry off the fine
dust but the lighter shavings
from the benches.

There should be a swing
trap-door at the bottom of the
uptake, or at the top of the
brickwork if an iron flue is not
used, that can be instantly
closed from the outside if the
shavings in the magazine should
catch fire. This trap can be
pivoted on a shaft to extend
out through the brickwork, and
be operated by a lever on the
outside.

The discharging door below
should be closed by means of
a sliding iron plate, counter-
weighted and working in
grooves, so that it will rest
on the shavings when the
magazine is full, or partially
full, prevent the dust from
escaping, and at the same time
prevent any circulation of air
in the case of fire.

Inlets or openings, to take

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 47

off sweepings, should be provided at suitable places for
clearing the floors. If opening downward the orifices
should be at least as small as the pipe, and never made in
a hopper form, as they will soon be clogged with blocks or

sticks.

FIG. 23.

Floor.

A better plan for these floor openings for sweepings, is
to bring down a pipe from the main overhead, cutting
it away at one side, Fig. 23, and closing the aperture
with a slide door when not in use; this plan is much

48 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

better for many reasons than inlets cut vertically through
the floors. The pipe can come down alongside a post or
the wall, not interfering with the room ; arranged in this
way there is but little danger of its choking, or having
lost tools, nails, or blocks, get into it. For conducting saw-
dust alone small tin pipes, 2 to 3 inches diameter, will do.

In erecting a set of pipes and apparatus of this kind
to clear a shop, the person in charge should avail himself
of any examples that may be in the vicinity, if they are
good and have been successful ; it is quite a new thing,
although extensively applied, and there is a great deal yet
to be learned by experience.

The danger of fire from this apparatus, once much
apprehended, was owing to the use of wooden conducting
pipes, pockets and corners, where fine dust would accumu-
late, and then explode by a spark communicated from a
hot bearing, lucifer matches being dropped among the
shavings, or by sparks from the fan striking grit or
nails. The inflammable and explosive nature of wood
dust is but little understood and not generally known,
but few are aware that it is a fulminate like gun-
powder. Any dust of combustible material, or even that
of cast iron, when floating in, and thickly distributed in
the air, explodes or burns up with great force. To prove
this, let anyone hold a candle beneath a girder or beam
in a wood shop and sweep off the fine dust from its top
so as to fall on the light, and they will be convinced of
its explosive nature. This is no doubt the origin of nearly
all the fires that have been attributed to pneumatic ap-
paratus ; as soon as caught, the fire was by means of the
wooden pipes immediately carried throughout the whole
building, or as far as the air currents extended.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 49

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FIRE.

Besides what has been said upon the danger of wood dust
in the last article, we will add a word about other sources
of fire, one of the evils that wood manufacturers have
particularly to contend with. Insurance rates for wood
shops are, in America, from three to five times as high as
in machine shops and other places, where, if the wood
shops were carefully managed, the risk would be equally
great. Everyone who has any charge in a wood shop
should continually study the possible sources of fire. As
accidents do not often happen when they are expected,
so fires do not come from sources that are foreseen. Fires
are generally mysterious, we rarely know just how they
occur, yet there is no want of sources for them, and con-
sidering the little care that is exercised in most shops to
guard against fires, the only wonder is they do not all
burn down as fast as built. There is no desire to exag-
gerate this matter, but to state it in a positive way.
The sources of fire about wood shops are generally bear-
ings, smoking, matches, stoves, sparks from the furnace,
lightning, and incendiarism, and also the want of means
to put out incipient fires, for such want is certainly
to be set down among the causes of destructive fires.
To consider these several sources ; — bearings need not be
made so as to take fire ; there should be no wood about
them, no accumulation of shavings, or of oil and sawdust;
smoking, we need hardly say, should not be allowed on the
premises; matches are not very dangerous and can be
carefully used ; stoves are not often needed in shops
where there is steam power, and when they are used, can
be made comparatively safe by setting them on an elevated
iron platform ; sparks from the furnace can only be a

50 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

source of danger when there is great negligence in the
plan of its construction or in its care ; and finally, there
is but little danger from any or all of these sources in a
clean orderly shop. Disposing of the matter in this way,
it may be said that it is quite easy to avoid danger from
fire. There are none of the things enumerated but what
are easily guarded against if taken in time and fully
considered. To understand sources of fire is quite another
thing, however, from merely thinking of them and being
aware of their existence; they must be considered on
scientific principles, like everything else connected with
technical matters, and when understood must be attended
to thoroughly, promptly, and persistently. It is not an
easy thing to fire a shop when there is no accumulation
of shavings, and a hard thing to guard against fire when
there is such accumulation. The floors should be kept
clean, no matter what it costs to keep them so, and
if the business will not otherwise afford it, pay the in-
surance policy to a porter to sweep up and watch for fire.
The chances are that you will save more in ten years than
by insuring. On every floor and in each room there
should be kept in some convenient place a number of
wooden pails filled with water, not to be used to fill
up the grindstone troughs, nor to wash up with, but
marked " fire," and to be let alone unless needed for that
purpose. It is but little trouble to keep them filled, and
some cheap chemicals, say a few drops of carbolic acid,
will keep the water pure in the summer during hot
weather. Fifty pails of this kind, that will cost fifteen
dollars, are worth more in a wood shop than a dozen
chemical annihilators, steam pumps, or other contrivances
which men cannot use when excited. A watchman, no
matter how stupid he may be, understands a water pail,

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 51

and will not fail to use it if he can get it, but would
not under excitement be able even to turn a stop-cock,
or sound an alarm signal if a fire should occur. The
responsibility of these precautions against fire rests mainly
with the managers and operators, proprietors do not always
understand them, and if they did, cannot watch them. We
would therefore urge a carefulness about fires, a thorough
study of all that may originate them, and the surest
means of arresting them, as one of the first and highest
qualifications of a competent machine operator and wood
workman.

Dirty shops and want of system are the common sources
of fires ; the opposite, clean shops and perfect system, are
the great safeguards against them. A clean shop guards
against exposure, and system detects and anticipates the
various ways in which fire may be kindled.

The pneumatic fan arrangement for clearing, alluded to
before, will no doubt add much to the safety from fire, by
keeping out the shavings and generally encouraging order
and cleanliness.

SPEED OF WOOD MACHINES.

The speed at which machines should run to give the
best result, is a question that operators should understand.
It is a matter which they are expected as a rule to control,
even when they do not direct the original arrangement
for speeds. To prove that the proper speed of machines is
an intricate, or at least an undetermined matter, we need
only refer to the diversity of opinion among mechanics,
and the want of any opinion at all with a great many
who have not studied the matter. This is not stated in

E 2

52 THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

a fault-finding spirit, but to show that it is no easy matter
to tell how fast saws, cutter spindles, boring and mortising
or other tools, should run.

If the speed of a machine could be premised from that
needed for the cutting edges alone, we should have a general
rule to apply, but the limit of speed is more frequently
taken from the conditions of the spindles and bearings,
than from the cutting action. Cutter-heads more than
4 inches diameter can generally be moved as fast as the
edges need to run to give a good result, say within 5000
revolutions a minute, or 5000 feet of movement with the
edges ; but when the cutter-heads are smaller, the spindles
are not diminished in the same ratio, and the speed must
be slower. Always consider the cutter movement as
the base in estimating speeds, instead of the number of
revolutions made by the spindle. A cutter on a 3-inch
head, making 4000 revolutions a minute, is only moving
as fast as one on a 6-inch head at 2000 revolutions ; yet
it is quite common, and a habit hard to avoid, to consider
all spindles as wanting a common speed of from 3000 to
5000 revolutions a minute, without considering the move-
ment of the edges.

Perhaps as good a rule as can be used is to assume a
4-inch cutter-head to make 4000 revolutions a minute, as a
base or unit of speed ; this makes approximately 4000 feet
a minute of cutting movement; then add 500 feet a
minute for each inch of diameter that is added to the
cutter-head ; this makes, with 10 inches diameter, a
speed of 7000 feet a minute, and for 16 inches diameter
10,000 feet a minute, which could then become a con-
stant as a maximum speed for all larger diameters.
This, it must be remembered, is assumed for strong
cutter-heads of forged or malleable iron, steel, or brass,

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

and not cast iron, which should never be used for high
speeds.

Beversing the rule, from 4 inches diameter, with 4000
feet of cutting movement ; deduct 750 feet of the movement
for each inch of diameter that the heads are reduced ;
this, at one inch, brings the cutting speed to 1750 feet
a minute with 7000 revolutions of the spindle, about a
practical limit. From this we have the following Table,
which can be used for reference : —

SPEED OF WOOD MACHINES.

Diameter of
Cutter-head.

Feet of Cutting
Movement a
minute.

Approximate
Number of
Revolutions
a minute.

Average Speed of
Bearing Surfaces
a minute
in feet.

Ratio of
Movement in
the Bearings.

inches.

1

1,750

7000

875

8

2

2,500

5000

937

9

3

3,250

4333

1083

10

4

4,000

4000

1125

11

5

4,500

3600

1125

11

6

5,000

3333

1145

11

7

5,500

3142

1277

13

8

6,000

3000

1406

14

9

6,500

2880

1444

14

10

7,000

2880

1445

14

n

7,500

2706

1450

14

12

8,000

2666

1465

15

• 13

8,500

2615

1525

15

14

9,000

2576

1541

lo

15

9,500

2533

1551

15

16

10,000

2500

1512

15

17

10,000

2352

1470

15

18

10,000

2222

1417

14

19

10,000

2105

1382

14

20

10,000

2000

1370

14

24

10,000

1666

1250

13

30

10,000

1333

1083

11

36

10,000

1111

987

10

40

10,100

1000

1000

10

NOTE. — These estimates, except the size of the cutter-heads, are approxi-
mate only, to give round numbers.

54 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

The speed of the line shafting should in all cases be as
great as the bearings will stand with safety ; 200 to 250
revolutions for 3-inch shafts, and 250 to 300 revolutions
a minute for 2J-inch shafts, make a good rule, to be
modified of course by the kind of bearings used. Coun-
tershafts, as a rule, can run three times as fast. 36-inch
pulleys, on the line shaft, with 12-inch tight and loose
pulleys on the countershafts, is a good arrangement for such
shafts as drive cutter spindles.

Speeds should, as far as possible, be arranged to start
from line-shaft pulleys of a uniform diameter, so that
machines can be exchanged, or moved from one place to
another, without taking down the line shaft each time to
put on a new pulley. There is something strange in the
fact that machine builders pay no attention to this matter ;
even machine tools that have nearly a constant velocity,
and require nearly a constant amount of power, are
arranged to be driven with pulleys varying from 6 to 24
inches diameter. Most builders, however, are willing to
modify their countershafts to suit speeds and pulleys, if a
special order is given, so that the fault rests mainly with
those who purchase the machines.

The cylinders of planing machines being strong and
safe, and the rate of feed needed as great as possible, they
can be run at a speed one-fourth greater than that given
in the Table.

Boring machines to operate screw-bits should run from
1000 to 2000 revolutions a minute, according to the kind
of wood or the size of the bits used.

For all reciprocating machines there is a general rule
that applies, which is to run them as fast as they will
stand; or, in other words, their work always requires

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 55

more speed tban it is possible to give them. This is
certainly not a very comprehensive rule, but another
rule, infinitely better, is to " use them only when they
cannot be avoided," no matter to what purpose they are
directed. For ordinary reciprocating machines the follow-
ing list of speeds is given, for which we trust the reader
will not require any special data, but accept it on faith
and as a matter of experience : —

Revolutions a minute.

Resawing machines with one saw .. .. 250 to 300
Scroll saw with sash 300 400

Jig saws with spring tension 500

„ unstrained saws 800

Mortising machines with movable table . . 300

„ „ chisel-feed .. .. 250

„ heavy, for car work . . 200

800

1500

450

350

300

Circular saws can be run at least a fourth faster than
other cutting tools, which can, for ordinary cases, be added
to the estimates in the Table for rotary motion. The
manner in which a circular saw is hammered has much to
do with the speed at which it can be run, and often when
a saw becomes limber and " runs," it is the fault of the
hammering instead of the speed. When slack on the
periphery it will not stand speed, and becomes weaker and
bends more readily when in motion than when it is still ;
on the contrary, if it is properly hammered a little tight,
as it is termed, on the periphery, it becomes more rigid
when in motion up to a certain limit. The theory of this
is that the steel is elastic, and is stretched by the
centrifugal strain in proportion to the speed, which is
greatest at the teeth and diminishes to the centre.

If saws indicate a tendency to spring and a want of
rigidity, have them re-hammered by an experienced smith,

56 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

before changing the speed to remedy it. Cutting wood
is a little like cutting iron ; hard wood cannot be cut
at so high a speed as soft wood. Anyone who has had
experience in working boxwood, cocoa, rosewood, or lig-
num vitae, will have noticed that a high speed soon de-
stroys the edges by overheating, especially with boring
tools, or turning tools that act continuously. The use of
these hard varieties of wood is, however, so exceptional
in America, that the matter need not be discussed here,
further than to say that a moulding or a planing machine
that is to run mainly upon walnut, ash, oak, or any of
the native hard woods, will give a better result if speeded
one-fourth slower than for pine or other soft woods.

POWER NEEDED TO DRIVE MACHINES.

The article on speeds for machines was commenced
by informing the reader that no positive rules could be
given. The present one, for stronger reasons, should
perhaps be commenced in the same way. The power is
something, however, which some one must understand,
and which all must be more or less conversant with. It
is one of the first considerations in making plans for a
mill, or for wood manufacture of any kind. It may
seem arbitrary, in dealing with a new subject like the
operation of wood machines, to make a list of and set
down the power needed to drive each machine. It is,
however, all that can be done in the absence of those
careful experiments that have fixed the measure of power

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 57

for other duties almost as diversified and irregular. In
our American shops from two to four times as much
wood is planed off as in Europe. The lumber is cut to
size whilst green, and then seasoned, so that it takes about
an eighth of an inch to dress boards, to say nothing of
irregular sawing. Foreign planing machines are driven
with belts one-fourth the width of the cutters, while
American machines have, or ought to have, twice as
much width of belt ; and, of course, consume power in
proportion. As a general rule, for ordinary planing,
with flat cutters the belts should be one-half the width
of the cutters, running on pulleys whose diameter equals
the cutter-heads, or is in the same proportion ; that is, if
the pulleys are half the diameter of the cutter-head, the
belt should be as wide as the cutter, and so on. This is for
top cutters that bring the stuff parallel ; for bottom cutters,
and for all other flat cutters that work on gauged stuff,
one-third less will do.

Assuming a rule for belts would seem to be the same thing
as establishing an estimate for the power required to run
machines, and it would be in most cases, but not for wood
machines. The high speed diminishes pulley contact, and
the dust and shavings keep the belts dry, diminishing
their tractile force ; besides, they must be loose, to prevent
the bearings from heating, so that if we were to reckon up
the amount of power to drive a 24-inch double surfacing
planer, according to the accepted standard for measuring
the power of belts, it would in most mills leave nothing
for the rest of the machines. Experience has, however,
demonstrated certain widths as sufficient, and appended is
a list of machines with an estimate in horse power as a
unit. To determine the size of an engine to drive wood

58 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

machine?, 3 in. of piston area to each horse power will be
found sufficient, if other conditions are correct.

POWER NEEDED TO DRIVE MACHINES.

No. of H.P.

30-inch surfacing planer, one tide „ 8

30 „ „ two sides 10

24 „ „ one side G

24 „ „ two sides 8

14 „ planing and matching machine G

14 „ „ „ with bottom cylinder 7

8 „ moulding machine, four sides 5

6 „ „ „ 3

4 „ sash moulding machine, three sides 2

Circular saws for each inch of diameter above the table . . 1

Mortising machine for light work to f inch 1|

„ „ heavy work to 2 inches 3

Rotary mortising machine for chair work 1

„ „ framing .. .. 3

Tenoning machine for joiner and cabinet work 2

„ „ framing 4

Jig saw for fret work 1

Band saw to 1 -inch blades 3

Shaping machine, two spindles 2

Wood-turning lathe 1

Blower for clearing shavings, &c 1 to 2

Boring machines 1 to 2

For grindstones, emery wheels, buffing wheels, hoisting
machines, and other details, add one horse power for each
ten men employed; the resistance of shafting, when of
unusual length, must also be taken into account.

In all estimates of the power needed to operate machines,
it must be remembered that the power used is generally
as the amount of material that is passed through the
machines, so that the aggregate must be based upon the
length of time, or the constancy with which the machines
are run. There must, of course, be enough provided to
drive all the machines at one time, and to their fullest
capacity, but in making estimates for rented power where
it is employed at intervals, or when but a part of the

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 59

machines run at one time, the amount used is quite
different from what the Table would indicate.

The power needed and the power consumed in wood
shops are two quite different things. The old saying
that time is money, is equally and more obviously true
if rendered, power is money. It is an element of cost,
just like oil, tools, or lumber. Power is, however, a less
tangible thing, and because it is not seen and handled,
is too often allowed ±o waste and escape under the
notice of those who are rigidly careful in other matters.
How common it is in going into a shop to hear the
belts screeching on the pulleys, belts running half on
the tight pulley when it is standing, or sometimes a
machine blocked to keep it from starting, with the
belts dragging on the pulleys. All this means waste of
coal and waste of money, not by loss of power alone,
but by the destruction of belts. If a belt is allowed to
rub on a tight pulley, or any other fixed object, it is at
once heated and stretched, and, as it stretches on one side,
the tendency is to draw it more on to this object; if
on the edges of tight pulleys, which is most common,
its driving power is impaired to the extent that it is
rubbed or stretched on its edges; as no contact takes
place when it is shifted. Whenever a heated bearing is
suspected, the rule is to hunt it up at once and correct
it ; the same thing should be done with the screeching of
belts ; whenever heard, look it out, and change the
shafting until it runs true. A belt always runs to the
nearest end of a shaft, as towards the line a, Fig. 24,
which is just the opposite way from what is generally
supposed. The old theory that a belt always runs to the
highest part may be true, and is undoubtedly true with
reference to the convexity of the face of pulleys, but does

60 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

not apply to pulleys that are set diagonally to the line
of the belt. In Fig. 24 it is easy to see that the pulley 1,

FIG. 24.

standing in the position shown, will wind the belt spirally,
like the thread of a screw, whose pitch is equal to the
space seen at 2, between the dotted line and the edge of
the pulley, or, in oilier words, the amount that the pulley
is out of truth.

The other edge, which may be called the high one, has
its influence on the belt, but it is trifling when compared
to the spiral winding action whicli carries the belt to one
side just as positively as a shifter would.

STOPPING AND STAKTING MACHINES.

The resistance offered by a machine in starting, is as
the inertia of the parts before they are in motion, or as
their momentum after they are in motion, and as mo-
mentum is as the weight multiplied into the velocity,
wood machines, by reason of their great speed, are heavy

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK. 01

to start ; especially planing and moulding machines that
have heavy cutter-heads. Shifting pulleys, or tight and
loose pulleys as they are generally called, are used almost
exclusively in our wood shops, and are no doubt the best
means there are of stopping and starting, except the idle
tension pulley, which can be used only in particular cases.
We should perhaps also except the plan of using an
independent shaft, shown Fig. 25, in which 1 is the

FIG. 25.

countershaft, and 2 an idle shaft carrying the stopping
pulley. This, although a good device, is difficult to erect
and keep in line, besides being too expensive to come
into general use. Its merits, however, aside from these
objections, will at once be conceded.

In a large mill in Cincinnati, Ohio, the shifting pulleys
are all arranged on this plan, and it is claimed that the
extra expense of first cost is more than made up by avoid-
ing the detention incident to having the pulleys run loose
on the shaft.

It is to be hoped that some modification of the friction
clutch will be made that has the needed qualities of
endurance and power, to take the place of shifting pulleys,
for high speeds ; it however lacks now much of the sim-
plicity and capacity for wear, that would fit it for the
purpose about wood- working establishments.

Shifting pulleys do very well at low speeds when the

62 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

shafts are not larger than 2 inches in diameter, and the
motion is not more than 500 revolutions a rniimte, but
at the high speeds which are necessary with wood
machines, they are a great source of trouble and annoy*
ance, and should be made with great care, and carefully
looked after for a time when first started.

In making plans for, or in gi\7ing orders for wood
machines, the loose pulleys should have special attention.
The holes should be bored and reamed to standard sizes,
so that a pulley may be exchanged from one shaft to
another, or replaced at any time without the trouble of
making a special fit.

Before erecting a countershaft or starting a machine
that has loose pulleys, always see to the fit, the character
of the hole, and that they are clean and well oiled at the
start.

The fit should be loose, not too loose, but so as to
be felt in shaking the pulley ; the hole will show on its
sides, from the rubbing of the mandril used in turning,
whether it is true or not. A little time spent in looking
after these things before starting, often saves detention
and accident afterwards, and as the operator has the care,
and generally the responsibility of loose pulleys sticking,
or cutting, it is important that he should understand the
cause of the difficulty and how to correct it. It is true the
machinist who builds wood machines should assume the
responsibility and always fit the work properly, but if
he does not, it is the operator's business to shift the
responsibility to whom it belongs.

Loose pulleys will give trouble now and then, no
matter how well they are fitted, and in erecting new
works, or in purchasing new machines, they should be
carefully looked after.

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

At the risk of recommending a plan that seems
theoretically incorrect, it is suggested that for high-speed
loose pulleys, there should be an oil groove cut in the
hub, as shown in Fig. 26 — a deep narrow groove parallel
to the shaft, and tapering from the ends to the middle, as

FIG. 2G.

FIG. 27.

FIG. 28.

shown in the sections, Figs. 26, 27. Such grooves would
be supposed to cause an unequal wear in the hole because
of the surface cut away at one side, but it will not be
found so in practice.

A better, although more expensive plan, is to have
grooves cut through the hub, as in Fig. 28 ; these can be
filled with brass antifriction metal, or
what is equally good, pear wood. The
grooves break what is termed the con-
tinuity of the bearing, a principle gene-
rally recognized as a safeguard against
abrasion or cutting.

The proportion of the hubs has much
to do with the performance of loose
pulleys. A too common custom is to make the hubs on
the light and loose pulleys, of equal length, losing a
large amount of bearing surface that might with ad van-

THE OPERATORS HANBDOOK.

FIG. 29.

tage be added to the loose pulley, and is not needed on
the fast. Fig. 29 is the proper plan of arranging the
hubs of shifting pulleys, especially for wood machinery,

where high speed and
wood dust are to be con-
tended with. The hubs of
loose pulleys to 3 inches
face should project -J in.
on each side of the rim,
and for faces of greater
width, 1 inch on each
side.

Loose pulleys running
on studs or fixed shafts
cannot be oiled by means

of oil holes drilled in the hub ; when a shaft is in motion
and the pulley is stopped the oil is drawn in rapidly, but
when both are still the case is quite different, and the oil-
ways should be made through the shaft or stud instead of
through the hub. This applies to the gearing about
planing machines, and in all cases where gear wheels or
pulleys run loose on a fixed axis. In ordering new
machines, or in case of trouble with those in use, have the
oil- ways changed to this plan, which is the only way to
ensure thorough lubrication and prevent trouble.

While discussing mechanism for stopping, starting, and
shifting belts, we will add some remarks about shifters.

A man may be tastefully dressed throughout in a suit of
the best, but his whole appearance is spoiled by a bad hat.
A machine may be properly constructed, in good propor-
tion, and set up in the best manner, and still present a bad
appearance from the effect of an awkward belt shifter.

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

65

The rods and fingers or studs are now generally furnished
with hangers for the smaller shafts ; but there are always
more or less of them to be made of wood; the custom
seems to be to pick up any pieces found lying about
the floor to make them from, without reference to size
or proportion. This is especially true of wood shops,
where there is every facility for making them in a proper
manner.

Of course no special arrangement or dimensions need
be followed in making shifter frames, yet there are propor-
tions which should be observed within reason.

Fig. 30 shows' a wooden shifter frame, constructed of hard
wood ; the pendants 2, 2 should be from 2£ to 2| inches

FIG. 30.

square ; the shifter rail 3, |- by 2£ inches ; the friction
rail 4, | by 2 inches ; and the lever f in. thick by 2^ inches
wide at the extreme, tapering to 1J in. wide at the lower
end, and to 1^ in. wide at the top end. Tho rail 4 is to
connect and stiffen the pendants 2, 2, and to hold the
shifter when it is set over, by the friction against the

66 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

lever ; this can be regulated by a piece of leather between
them, or by Laving the rail sprung so as to bear against
the lever.

The eye that the belt runs through at 5 can be made
of round iron \ in. or f in. diameter, flattened at the
ends, and drilled to receive two wood screws in each
side.

In building a new place, or when machines are being
added, a good plan is to prepare a number of pieces for
shifter rails and pendants, which can be shaped and
mortised ready for use when wanted, and cost much less
than if improvised each time they are needed.

Idle or tension pulleys, or more properly brake pulleys,
are perhaps the best means of stopping and starting
machines or shafts in any case when the belts are in a
position that allows their use. In wood shops any belt
that runs at an angle higher than 45 degrees can, as a
rule, be operated by a brake pulley ; which is not only a
very effectual means of stopping and starting, but has
the important advantage of regulating the tension of the
belt to suit the character of the work, and also increases
its lap and tractile power.

Wood shops are especially instanced because a belt at
any other than a very high angle cannot be operated
in this way unless the surfaces are sufficiently dry and
smooth to allow them to slip on the still pulley. As the
belts of a wood shop are usually in this condition because
of the dust, brake pulleys can be used with advantage in
a great many cases, particularly on the larger belts, and
when the driving pulley is below. This latter case allows
the belt to stop with the top pulley ; but if the angle is as
high as 60 degrees, Figs. 31 and 32, the driving pulley
can be above, and the belt will run loosely around the

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK. UY

bottom pulley without injury if it is not too heavy and
there are flanges or guides to keep it on when running
loose. In Fig. 31, 1 is the driving pulley, 2 the brake
pulley, and 3 the driven pulley. The brake pulley must
always be placed on the slack side of the belt, where the
bottom pulley is the driver, or as in Fig. 32, where the top
pulley is the driving one.

FIG. 31

FIG. 32.

Besides the advantages of regulating the tension and
increasing contact, brake pulleys can be used to guide
the belt by changing their axes, a very important matter
in the case of large driving belts ; they also require but
one-half the room and width needed for shifting pulleys.

Brake pulleys for small belts should be made as in
Fig. 33, the centre laid up out of wood, with a flange
of cast iron at each end, fitted on the spindle, and fastened
to the wood by means of wood screws. The shaft can be
square when it is fitted through the wood, which prevents

F 2

68

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

it from turning in the pulley, and obviates the necessity
of keys in the end flanges; as there is no end thrust on

FIG. 33.

the shaft it can have point bearings. The bearing is
arranged for antifriction metal, with a tallow cup on the
top, which is the only lubrication needed. If the bearings
have to be oiled in the usual manner, the belt is sure
to become greased by the waste oil thrown from the
flanges.

By letting these bearings into the brake frame, Fig. 33,
and having the bolt holes slotted, they are easily moved
for adjustment; and if keys are placed on each side of
them, they can be set to change the axis of the pulley so
as to guide the belt.

Positive clutches are not fit for wood machines, there
are no motions that need be so positive as to require them ;
besides, if made as they should be, they are much more
expensive than either shifting belts or brake pulleys.

A great trouble with wood machines is the abrupt
manner in which they are started; a belt to drive a
planing machine 8 inches wide, moving at 2000 feet a
minute, is usually shifted at once to the fast pulley,

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 69

causing a shock to the pulleys and shafting, which if
it were not for the slipping of the belt would soon destroy
the whole arrangement.

This can be guarded against by shifting the belts
gradually, but cannot be left to the judgment of those
who work on the machines unless they are specially
instructed, and even then will generally be forgotten or
disregarded. Many machine builders in England arrange
shifters to work with screws, so that they cannot be used
abruptly, a plan that pays well for the trouble, when
there are shifting pulleys which run at a high speed and
when the shifter can be attached directly to the machine.

ACCIDENTS FROM WOOD MACHINES.

A machine operator who has not carefully studied the
many sources of danger and accident to which he is con-
tinually exposed, has neglected a study, the neglect of
which may cost him a limb or his life at any time. There
is always more or less danger from sources that cannot
be ' foreseen, and therefore cannot be provided against,
without running risks from dangers that are under-
stood.

Accidents in wood shops occur generally from care-
lessness, and a failure to correct some irregularity or
risk that was well known, such as cuts by saws or other
tools in motion — winding belts, bolts or cutters flying
off, or winding the clothing — none of which seem to offer
much risk, and yet are dangerous enough, if estimated
from the number of accidents from these causes. It is
rare to find a man who has been engaged for any length
of time in operating wood-cutting machines who has not

70 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

lost fingers, or does not bear scars that attest the danger
of his calling.

There is perhaps less real risk with wood-cutting
machinery than many other kinds, if people were equally
careful in working with it. One is not apt to go near a
train of wheels, or a large belt that is in motion, with-
out a feeling of dread ; they convey a sense of danger ;
but a circular saw looks harmless when running, almost
as though it coulcJ be handled without injury, and unless
a high-speed machine makes a great noise, it does not seem
to convey any sense of peril.

With one exception, circular saws are perhaps the most
dangerous among wood tools. The hands in many varieties
of work must of necessity be exposed to injury, and nothing
but continual attention and care will prevent accidents.
The mind must be kept on the work, and never for a single
instant wander away to other matters.

The writer, during a long experience with a large
number of sawyers under his charge, noticed that a man
who was absent-minded was sure to be cut, and that by
carefully observing the disposition and peculiarities of the
workmen, there could be men selected for the saws who
ran but little risk. Whenever a man was detected day
dreaming, or engrossed in thought, he was removed from
the saws and given a job with less risk ; the result was,
that accidents became rare, although the work was of a
dangerous character, consisting mainly of what is termed
blocking and cropping, where some twelve saws were at
work.

Accidents in sawing are generally from cuts where the
hands are jerked into the saw, and from pieces coming
over the saw from behind. In the first case the accident
generally occurs from the piece suddenly parting in the

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 71

line of the kerf, either through a split or a hidden cut on
the under side that allows the piece to spring forward so
quickly that the hands cannot be checked, or by the
piece unexpectedly rolling over towards the saw when
the cut is being made on one side. These are cases when
a careful sawyer may be cut; but there are a hundred
other ways in which accidents may occur, even by people
deliberately placing their hands upon a saw without
knowing it to be in motion, a circumstance which has
often happened.

In block sawing, cutting short stuff, the .sawyer should
use a stick for pushing the pieces, placing his left hand to
keep them against the fence, and keeping the stick in his
right to push them through. A little practice soon makes
this a convenient plan, and one that would be generally
followed if it were not that in most American saw benches
we have not only to push the stuff through but at the same
time hold it down to keep it from rising behind the saw,
a matter to be noticed farther on. If the stuff has no
tendency to rise behind, there is no excuse for placing
the hands near enough to the saw to be in danger, no
matter what the character of the work.

In sawing from the side of a piece that is liable to roll
over, no other precaution can be taken except close atten-
tion and an estimate of the danger beforehand. The best
rule is to be ready to let go if anything happens, and it
may be remarked that in this as in all other cases where
accidents may or do happen, people are seldom hurt from
a cause that has been previously considered and is watched
for. Pieces coming over the sa^y is a danger that is more
apparent, gives some warning, and is generally dreaded
and watched for by the sawyer, especially if he has seen
or experienced such accidents. Many who have worked

72 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

about saws for years do not know the force with which a
piece will be thrown from a sharp saw that has hooked
teeth.

If a piece of stuff — say, 10 feet long — is taken behind a
ripping saw, and the end dropped on the top, so that its
whole length will pass over the top, it will attain a velocity
equal to that of the periphery of the saw, a fact that is
easily proved by examining the marks of the teeth toward
the last end, the pitch of which will equal that of the teeth
on the saw. An accident of this kind will sometimes
happen from a green or wet piece closing on the saw be-
hind ; but it is quite rare, and with this exception there is
no need of such a thing ever happening. In nineteen cases
out of twenty the fault is in the gauge or fence, which
for some unaccountable reason seems in America to be
arranged with a special view to throwing the stuff over the
saw; and considering the ingenuity and the intelligence
which mark shop manipulation in other matters, there is
no parallel for it.

Fig. 34 shows the usual plan of arranging saw gauges in
England and most other countries.

FIG. 34.

We often see saw benches from 8 to 10 feet long with a
mandril in the centre, where no one can reach the saw

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 73

from the end, and the work is done with the greatest incon-
venience; the gauges not only extend past the saw, but
are often longer behind than they are in front, an arrange-
ment that is never heard or thought of in any other
country.

It is evident that if a gauge extends behind the saw it
cannot be set parallel to the plate, but must, in order to
free the stuff, stand at an angle ; and as the constant ten-
dency is to keep it parallel, the result is that the pieces are
lifted behind and thrown over. This matter will be further
considered under its proper head, and is alluded to here
only in connection with the danger it occasions.

Many fatal accidents occur from flying pieces, which,
from saws of average diameter, usually strike the sawyer
in the breast or about the waist, often causing instant
death — sometimes scarcely leaving a scar. Three fatal
accidents of this kind happened within as many years with
men personally known to the writer, which is mentioned
to explain the emphatic disapproval of long saw gauges.
A thick plank hinged so as to hang directly above the
saw, heavy enough to stop any piece coming over, makes
a safeguard against such accidents, but it hides the rear of
the saw from view, and is not needed if other precautions
are attended to.

Circular saws were mentioned as second among the dan-
gerous machines of a wood shop. The irregular moulding
or shaping machine should be placed first.

Safety shields of various kinds have been devised, most
of which protect the hands, but are in the way, and can
generally be found hanging on the wall somewhere in the
vicinity of the machines. No safety device that impedes
or increases the labour will ever be used in this or any
other case, and the safest plan is to carefully consider how

74 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

accidents may happen and what precautions will hinder
them without interfering with the work.

In shaping, the danger is from having the piece snatched
by the cutters, either by a splinter raising or when the
angle of the cutters is such as to cause them to catch, both
of which can be in a measure guarded against by having
the angle of the edges very obtuse, which suits the nature
of the work besides promoting safety.

A great share of the work performed on shaping
machines, especially such as is extensively duplicated, can
be moulded on formers fitted with clamps to hold the
piece as in Fig. 35. This arrangement fully protects the
hands, besides making better and faster work.

FIG. 35.

The holder shown at Fig. 35 is adapted to milling or
shaping chair-stuff, hames, billet frames, or other work,
when there are a number of pieces of the same pattern to
be moulded ; 5 is the pattern and main frame on which the
clamping jaws are mounted, 6 is the piece to be moulded.
The jaws 1, 1 are operated by the tension rod 3 and the
handle 2, which locks the jaws when thrown down in the
position shown by the dotted lines, making a toggle-joint,
which is the only safe fastening when there is jar and
concussion. The amount of force used in clamping is
regulated by the swivel screw at 4, which can also to a
limited degree be used to adjust the jaws for pieces of
varying thickness.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 75

This form of clamp is the only one that is safe to use
on a shaping machine. Screws, spurs, or wedges — in fact,
anything except the toggle-joint — may give way at any
time, and lead to accident. The tension rod on the top
equalizes the strain on the bar 5, which would be bent by
any clamping device that acted independently at each end.
There is also the advantage of clamping both ends instantly
at the same time and with equal force.

The safety of operating shaping machines depends much
upon the form of the cutters ; if they have an obtuse
angle and stand in a radial position, there is but little ten-
dency to snatch the piece, and the cutting will be effected
as easily and much smoother than when standing in an
acute position; the angle of cutters will, however, be
noticed under another head.

Accidents often occur from winding belts, and are always
dangerous, either from the chances of being drawn in by
the belt or from pulling down the shafting. Three cases
out of every four are caused by the belts becoming fast
between pulleys set too near together, an easy thing to
guard against, and yet a most common fault.

Pulleys on a line shaft, that are separated only an inch
or two, are danger traps, that may at any time cost a life
or lead to destructive accidents. There should always be
a space between, at least one-third more than the width of
the belts, and as much wider as practicable. Belts running
too near together are also a source of danger; if one belt
breaks it is apt to be overrun by the other, and both of
them wound about the shaft; and as the supports for
shafting are often not strong enough to part the belts,
the whole is likely to be thrown down if the heavier belts
are wound.

There is always danger in throwing on belts when the

76 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

pulleys are in motion. It would be of little use arguing
against the practice when it will have no influence to
prevent it ; what is better will be to give such instruction
as is possible to lessen danger.

Do not attempt to throw on large belts until practised
with small belts, at low speeds, and experiment until
these can be thrown on without failure and without danger.
There is nothing about a shop that is learned so blindly as
this; no one can, as a rule, tell how to put on a belt,
or even offer a suggestion, except it be to keep your
hands out, or to get on the right side of the pulley. It is
learned by accident, as we may say ; and yet there is
one little thing which, if understood, will save nearly all
the experiment, and at the same time the danger, for the
danger does not come from the throwing on of a belt so
much as the failure in doing so. Move the hand as fast as
the pulley goes ; that is the whole art. Watch persons
trying to throw on a belt, and it will be seen that the only
difference between the skilled and the unskilled rests in
this thing, of moving the hand with the pulley. The one
will throw it on instantly, apparently without effort, and
without a thought of failure; the other will try several
times, and then, from desperation, attempt to force it
on, and burn the hand from friction, or do something
worse in the way of accident. Now the difference, if noted,
will be found to consist in the fact, that in the successful
attempts the hand was moved as fast as the pulley, and
in the others it was not. There are of course other con-
ditions to be observed, but this is the essential one.

If the belt is long and horizontal, the centre, or bight,
as the sailors call it, should be held up, and the slack
should be mainly on the taking-on side ; this provides in
a measure for overcoming the inertia of the belt, and the

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK. 77

machinery to be started, the chief difficulty where there
is much speed.

Large belts, unless very long, should never be thrown on
Avhile the pulleys are in motion, but drawn together with
clamps and joined. If they have to be thrown on, stop the
pulleys, lash the belt to the face of the pulley, and turn
by hand or slowly with the power until the pulley has made
a half turn, and the belt is on, when the lashing can be
removed.

Accidents from winding the clothing are of great fre-
quency in wood shops, but unless from the line shafting, are
less serious than in other places. The high speed is a safe-
guard in such accidents, as the body cannot be drawn in
and revolved about a spindle or shaft that is running at a
high speed ; the greater danger is from slow shafts, making
from one to three hundred revolutions a minute. Set
screws are generally at the bottom of the matter, and
boring spindles the most common source of accidents.

It was remarked before that there is no use in recom-
mending a thing when you know the advice will not be
followed. If it was not for this, we should feel like enter-
ing a general protest against all exposed set scre\vs. Many
of our best machinists avoid them wherever they can, and
in some shops they are not allowed on the machines about
wrhich the men work, and where there is danger ; but this
is exceptional, and the rule in wood machinery of the
present time is to find them not only in chucks to hold
bits, but even in collars on the ends of shafts to keep
the loose pulleys on. This last is nothing but a relic of old
times, an unmechanical and most dangerous plan of keep-
ing loose work on a shaft, at a place where belts are to be
thrown on and off or oiling done. A nut on the end. of the
shaft is neater, more mechanical, and certainly safer.

78 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

Machine operators have usually under their charge
unskilled hands, often boys, who have had no previous
experience, and there is great responsibility resting on
them in this matter of accidents ; the novice is at their
mercy, uninstructed and uncautioned, he is liable to
meet with accidents that will cost him a finger, a limb,
or his life. The dangers of machinery are to him just
like secret traps set for his destruction, and the old or
master operator is to be considered his guardian to take
him safely through by warning him of the danger. We
feel it quite unnecessary to appeal to the sympathy of
the operators in this matter. Such accidents as we have
alluded to rarely happen from any cause but oversight
and want of caution ; and wood workmen, as a class, have
but little of that foolish jealousy that in some other trades
leaves the young apprentice to learn of danger as he best
can.

Operators and managers in any place where the work
is under their charge, should go along the line shafting
and look for projecting screws, keys, or bolt-heads, see that
there are no belt traps between pulleys, and that there is
free access to oil bearings without going into dangerous
places. If such things are found, have them corrected ;
if proprietors will not do it, quit them, and seek employ-
ment with those of more humanity, system, and good
sense ; the change will be an advantage in the end. If
exposed set screws are found on machines, have them
countersunk, or if on the ends of spindles or shafts, have
them replaced with nuts. Examine saw gauges and all
machines for sources of danger, caution apprentices, and
explain clearly the nature of possible accidents, and but
little danger need be apprehended. Some foremen are
continually having accidents with their machinery, and

THE OPEBATOR'S HANDBOOK.

others rarely ever have; the difference is mainly from
things that have been pointed out, and millowners in
placing their machinery in charge of anyone should
inquire what accidents he has had, just as much as how
much experience he has had in his business.

Accidents from flying cutters, or bolts thrown from
cutter-heads in motion, are of rare occurrence. To one
who knows nothing of the thing practically, the chances
would seem equal, for cutters to fly off or to stay on, when
their weight, work, and speed are taken into account.
They do not come off very often, however, and when they
do there are rarely any accidents from them. This is for
two reasons; there is an instinct of danger from cutters
that always keeps the operator on his guard ; and any-
thing that flies from a revolving cutter-head always goes
precisely in the plane of rotation, which it is easy to avoid,
and if the fact is realized, the operator keeps out of this
plane when in the vicinity of high-speed spindles. As
this statement comprehends nearly all that can be said as
a caution, we will next notice the fastening of the cutters,
where the danger generally has its origin.

Cutters are generally held by screws that pass through
and clamp them to the head or block. These screws have
two purposes to serve ; to clamp the cutter on the head
so firmly that the friction will keep it from sliding end-
wise ; and to hold it against the centrifugal strain and
the strain of cutting, which is tranverse to the face
of the cutter, and from the centre of the head. Now
making due allowance for the tenacity of good bolts, and
the strength they are supposed to have in such cases, there
is a point of straining where the screw is ready to break,
without adding the further strain of the centrifugal and the
cutting forces, and the great danger is rather in over-

80 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

straining than in understraining them. The inexperienced
generally, with a feeling of greater security in having the
cutters tight, will screw them down as firmly as they can,
and as the amount of this strain is usually governed by the
length of the wrench, it is easy to see the importance of
watching the matter especially with moulding machines,
where the cutters are too often held by bolts, not only
too small, but of low grade iron.

Cutter-screws and bolts should be made of the very best
refined iron, not from Swedish, Norwegian, or any of the
fine imported iron which is too soft, but from the best
rivet rods. It is not amiss to keep a few rods of this
iron of ^ in., |- in., and f in. diameter, which can be
sent out to have cutter-bolts made from ; it will ensure
their quality and add but a trifle to their cost. Steel is
not safe for such bolts, and should never be used ; if it is
perfectly annealed and soft, it is of course stronger than
iron, but there can never be any assurance of this, besides
it will not stand blows and rough usage so well as iron.

EEPAIKS OF MACHINEEY.

The repairing about a wood-manufacturing establishment,
including the renewal of cutters, tools, belts, or saws, that
are regularly worn out, and the breakages from accident,
if footed up at the end of each year, would in most cases
equal, and in not a few exceed, the clear earnings. To
lose a contract for a thousand dollars' worth of work on
which there is a probable profit of ten per cent., is to lose
the chances of one hundred dollars of earnings, but to lose
by accident one hundred dollars for repairs is that much

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 81

money taken from the actual earnings already made.
Its loss is a matter of certainty, and if we could only
realize on all occasions, as we should, that one dollar of
this kind of expense represents ten dollars' worth of work
done in the shop, the repair bills would be materially
reduced.

It was remarked at the beginning that an operator of
wood machinery should be a machinist. Good operators
are generally able to do ordinary repairs, and prefer doing
them without sending them out to be bungled in a second-
class machine shop.

There is no intention here of suggesting radical
changes in existing practice and customs that are not
wise and expedient, but it is confidently recommended
that any woodwork shop employing fifty or more men
should have an engine lathe and a portable forge for
doing their own repairs. The engineer as a rule has
time to work these tools, and will find many things to
do on them in the course of a "year, that would otherwise
either remain undone or have to be sent out, and appear
in a long bill for repairs.

An engine lathe suitable for general purposes in a wood
shop of 16" to 20" swing, to turn 6 to 8 feet in length,
can with the necessary equipment of tools be procured for
from 450 dollars to 600 dollars.

The tools and appliances wanted will be as follows ; —

Centre and following rests, furnished with lathe.

One 12" to 16" independent jaw chuck.

One set of chuck drills, 1" to 1" by eighths, to 2" by fourths.

One set of twist drills, |" to f " by TVths, f " to li" by eighths.

A set of V thread taps from f" by y^ths to f ", and by eighths from

f" to li", with wrenches to turn them.
Two chucks for drills fitted to the lathe.
Six each, 4", 6", and 8", clamp bolts, f " diameter.
Lathe dogs from | to 2" by iths, from 2" to 4" by | inch.

82 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

Lathe tools as follows ; —

Four diamond tools, right and left.

Two side tools, right and left.

Four square tools, 1", T3¥"' ^", and •§" wide.

Two V tools for threads, one bent and one straight.

One inside thread tool 3" long.

Three boring tools, 3", 5", and 7" long.

One round nose tool,

making in all 17 pieces. These tools should be ordered with
and come with the lathe, so that they will fit the tool post ;
and besides have the advantage of being properly made and
tempered by the lathe manufacturer, who is presumed to
understand just how they ought to be after their purpose
has been explained.

A portable forge from 30 to 36 inches diameter, with a
sufficient outfit of tongs, and a cast-iron anvil, will cost
from 60 to 80 dollars. If the whole machine shop in-
vestment is valued at 750 dollars including the shafting,
the interest of this would at ten per cent, a year be 75
dollars, as an investment, a sum that will generally be
saved in making countershafts, pulleys, or other fittings,
to say nothing of repairing. The lathe and tools, if taken
care of, will be worth nearly what they cost at any time.
We will next consider what may be gained by this auxiliary
machine shop in repairs, and doing such fitting as comes
within its capacity.

First — There is the saving in cost, notwithstanding the
argument of machinists to the contrary. The labour,
which is the expensive element in machine fitting, is often
performed by the engineer, or some one else, in conjunc-
tion with other duties.

Second — The work is done when it is needed, or, what
is better, and in most cases practicable, before it is needed ;
one job done at the right time is as good as two jobs done

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 83

at the wrong time ; this may be among " Franklin's
maxims ; " if not, it ought to be.

Third — The work is done in the manner required, and
this is the main point of all. In regular machine fitting
there are drawings to work from, and there is no trouble in
conveying to the workmen a knowledge of what is wanted ;
besides, the work is of a regular nature, and suggests its
requirements ; but the repairs of a wood-working establish-
ment are very different. We have only to ask a machinist
who has such repairs to do, to learn the reputation they
have as a branch of work.

Fourth — The time otherwise lost running after the
repairs when done outside. This item is placed last, at
the risk of having fault found with the arrangement,
for there is no one who has had to look after the repairs
of a wood-working establishment, especially when they are
at a distance, who would not name this item first. It
is unreasonable to expect a machinist to do a thing at
once, or even at a definite time, when he has no oppor-
tunity of mailing plans in advance ; or to expect him to
serve several at the same time ; and it often costs more
trouble and time to attend to repairs than they are worth.

A wood workman generally, from the nature of his
business, knows something about metal fitting and machine
work ; on the contrary, it is rare that a machinist knows
anything of wood cutting ; hence, without drawings, it is
almost impossible to convey an idea of what is wanted,
except by immediately directing the workman, which is
generally an equal and more distasteful duty than doing
the work oneself.

With an outfit for repairing such as has been described,
a wood-working factory may, by purchasing castings for
hangers, pulleys, and bearings, when wanted, fit all shafts

G 2

84 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

except the main line, which, for reasons already given,
should be bought from a first-class house that is regularly
in the business.

Spindles, and shafts of all kinds that go on wooden
frames, can be made ; cutters, when of solid steel, can be
cut off from the bar, bevelled, drilled, slotted, and tempered.
Pulleys of all kinds within the swing of the lathe can be
bored and turned. In short, nearly all operations that
appear in the expense account of machine-shop bills will
be saved. It leads also to a kind of self-sustaining spirit
in the works, and this to a community of interest, that is
always a characteristic of successful business.

It must however be remembered that this plan of
doing their own machine work is not recommended for
small shops ; or, rather, it is not recommended as a paying
investment, unless the tools can be kept at work a reason-
able portion of the time.

A separate room, where the wood-dust cannot get in,
is needed for this iron work. To put iron tools into the
same room with wood tools is to make a failure of the
experiment; the small tools are mislaid, the whole covered
with dust, and the spirit of the thing lost. A room need
not add much to the expense, because such a place is
needed, whether there are iron tools or not, and the little
space required for a lathe and forge does not much increase
its size. Grindstones, saw filing vices, oil, and stores, can
all be kept in the machine room, and in most cases one man
can repair, file saws, grind cutters, and give out stores be-
sides doing such new machine work as is needed and the
tools will perform.

For the assistance of those who are not practically
skilled in the use of an engine lathe, it is thought best to
append some instructions and hints, which may be of use.

THE OPERATOR S HANDBOOK.

85

FIG. 36.

An engine lathe will perform nearly all the operations of
machine fitting, except planing, and even this can be done
to some extent on a lathe that has
a strong screw and gearing. For
drilling, have a stem pad, like
Fig. 36, to go into the poppet
spindle, and a number of wood
blocks, of different dimensions, to
build up under the work when

drilling. Keep these blocks at hand, and do not have to
go into the shop to search for new ones each time they
are wanted.

When two or more holes have to be drilled exactly
parallel, take out the tool post, and bolt the piece to the
tool block, as in Fig. 37 ; it can then be moved across
the lathe by the tool screw to bore any number of holes

FIG. 37.

c

in a true line, or the piece can be turned on the bolt to
bring different points to the drill. Do not use the turning
feed in drilling, but move the carriage by means of the
tail screw.

If a key way is to be cut in a pulley or wheel, first bore
it, and then lock the lathe with the back gearing ; put a
thin slotting tool in the post, and by operating the slide by
hand it can be planed out perfectly true, and in less time
than it could be chipped. The tools for this purpose should

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

be narrow, not over an eighth of an inch wide, and the
work done at several operations, Fig. 38. If the key is
FIG. 38. w*de the pieces between can be cut out with
a chisel at a few blows, or cut out on the
lathe by using a stiffer tool. To cut key
ways in shafting, drill a hole at the end
where the key way stops, mount the shaft
between the centres, lock the lathe, dog the
piece to keep it from turning, and proceed by hand move-
ment, as in the other case, using a narrow stiff tool.
Never use the turning or screw-feed in any of these opera-
tions, or it may be found necessary to go out for repairs,
notwithstanding your own machine shop.

In making steel spindles, do not try to anneal them ; cut
them off in the lathe by removing the tail stock if the bar
is too long, catching the end in the chuck and running it in
the centre rest, which is a better plan than to heat it, and
will, if we count the squaring up of the ends, be less work
than to do it at the forge, which requires two men instead
of one. The same rule applies to shafting generally, a bar
of any length can be put in a lathe in this manner and cut
into pieces as long as the same lathe will turn. Have a
breast drill for the purpose, and drill all the centres ; never
depend upon a punched centre for work of any kind. The
breast drill will be found handy for many other purposes,
such as drilling oil holes about machines without taking
the work down, and for small holes generally.

Bolts and screws are now articles of merchandise, like
nails, and can be bought of any diameter or length from
several firms who make a specialty of their manufacture ;
odd screws can be made in the lathe. Left-hand nuts for
saw mandrils, and cases where but a special nut is used,
can be chased on the lathe.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 87

Tempering tools that are not liable to spring is easily
learned, and as the wood workman has the advantage
of experimenting with the edges which he hardens, the
chances are that with a little practice he can do it better
than a smith. Tempering should be learned by everyone
who uses tools, no matter of what kind. As a process it has
but little more to do with forging than with any other
branch of work, and is a question of judgment rather than
skill. Slow regular heating, both before hardening and in
drawing or tempering, is the main thing to ensure success.
As to the proper shades and degrees of temper, they must
be seen to be understood. If a piece of steel is hardened
and then polished and reheated on a piece of hot iron,
these shades of colour can be learned in one or two experi-
ments. The first shade, pale -straw colour, is right for
nearly all wood tools.

MOULDING BEARINGS.

Another kind of repair about our American woodwork
shops is moulding bearings of alloy — making Babbitt metal
bearings as it is generally termed, though for what reason
it would be hard to say. The patent of Babbitt related to
a mode of constructing bearings, and not to an alloy from
which they were formed. We have to use some general
name for the bearings and metal, however, and Babbitt is
perhaps as good as any other ; but when we make a verb
of it, and to speak of Babbiting bearings, the matter has
gone too far, and it is better certainly to call it moulding
them.

Moulding bearings is one of the regular repair jobs
about wood shops in America; and while almost anyone

88 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

can run a bearing of some kind, it requires both experience
and judgment to do it correctly ; that is to say, that
the shaft shall not be sprung by the heat on one side,
and that the bearing will be of the proper diameter when
moulded, with the metal solid and smooth. To this we
may add, pouring without spilling the metal, burning the
hands, or having what is too well understood as a blow-
up. In fitting new machines that have moulded bearings,
the metal should always be poured on mandrils prepared
for the purpose, and not on the shafts themselves ; but in
re-moulding them for a wood shop it is impossible to have
templates for this purpose, because of the various diameters
and lengths of the spindles, and the bearings have to be
moulded on the shafts that are to run in them. This
operation requires the greatest care to prevent springing
the spindles, which will sometimes happen, no matter what
precautions may be taken to prevent it. With short bear-
ings, or those that run at a speed of less than 1 000 revolu-
tions a minute, there is little difficulty ; but in the case
of saw mandrils, planing and moulding spindles, shaping
spindles, and so on, the bearings will sometimes heat in
the most mysterious manner after being recast, and just
when they are expected to perform well.

Whenever it is practicable, both sides of the bearings
should be poured or moulded at one time, and not at two
operations, as is commonly the case ; it requires no more
risk or trouble, and is sooner done, with much less risk of
springing the shaft. To mould them in this manner the
shaft or spindle should be first levelled up and set square
or parallel with the planed surfaces on the frame or top of
the machine by placing pieces of brass or wood beneath
it, the packing then fitted, as shown in Fig. 39, with open-
ings to allow the melted metal to run from the top to the

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

89

bottom, also some vent holes towards the ends to allow
the gas and air to escape. This packing can be of paste-
board, wood, or of several FIG g9
layers of paper, to be
removed for adjustment ;
soft pine is perhaps the
best kind of packing, and
is always at hand. After
the packing is fitted the
cap can be screwed down
firmly and the ends luted
with clay, if there are
apertures large enough for the metal to escape. If the
weather is cold, or in any case, it is best to heat the cap
before putting it on ; it will soon communicate its heat to
the rest of the bearing and the shaft, which should be
turned round so as to be warmed evenly.

In luting the ends with clay, do not paste them air-tight ;
it is a mistake that often leads to a failure. Carry the clay
up to the top of the cap, leaving a free opening or gate
for the gas to escape. Bearings that are to be remoulded
will, unless burnt out, always contain grease enough to
create a quantity of gas when the hot metal is poured in,
and unless it has free means of escaping, the bearing will
be blown, and imperfectly filled.

After the bearing has been moulded the gates can be
broken off and the cap loosened by driving it endwise, or
by wedging it up with a chisel : the harder kinds of metal
are easily separated in this manner, and the softer should
not be used for high speeds.

In melting the metal, be careful not to overheat it, and
to have it at the proper temperature when poured. If it is
too hot the shrinkage is in proportion, and as this is the

90 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

great trouble about moulding such bearings, the metal
should be poured at as low a heat as it will run freely. A
good plan is to thrust a pine stick into the metal after it
melts, and as soon as it will burn the stick or cause it to
smoke, it is hot enough, in fact, hotter than it need be, and
should, when there are free gates to pour through, be
allowed to stand to cool for a time after this test. Pour
quickly and carefully, but without hurrying, and be sure
that there is not something forgotten that may interrupt.

After the bearing has been poured and trimmed, the
next thing is to fit it. We are well aware that this propo-
sition will be a new one to most wood-machine operators, for
bearings are generally moulded and then started without
fitting; yet there is no risk in asserting that without
fitting three out of every four will heat at the beginning.

It is evident that if the metal shrinks, as it must do, the
bearing will be too small, unless the metal is so firmly
fastened in the box as to prevent it from closing on the
shaft. Even if it did not shrink, the bearing would be too
close a fit to run cool, so that it must of necessity be fitted.
To do this use a round-ended scraper, made by grinding a
half-round file into shape, or by a scraper, specially pre-
pared. A half-round file with its edges ground sharp is
as good for the purpose as any tool that can be made ;
those not accustomed to scraping can do better by using
the sides instead of the end. First scrape the sides of the
bearing, which are always too close ; then put the mandril
in its place, and by turning it round it will mark the spots
where it touches, which can be scraped off until it has a
full bearing throughout. The cap can then be fitted in
the same manner, and unless the shaft is sprung or other-
wise imperfect there will be no heating.

No bearing about wood machines that runs at a high
speed, whether it be brass, composition, or iron, can run

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 91

well without being fitted by scraping. It would seem that
when they are moulded directly on the shaft it would en-
sure a fit, but a little observation and a practical experi-
ment will prove the contrary.

Bearings that do not run at high speed, for countershafts
or line shafting, can be made by winding a layer of paper
about the shaft before casting them ; it not only provides
for the shrinkage and brings the size right, but being a
good non-conductor of heat, it prevents the metal from
being chilled on the shaft, and will always ensure a sound
smooth surface. A sheet of writing paper can be wound
around the shaft and tied with a string outside the bear-
ing, or a long strip of paper that is cut parallel and straight
can be wound spirally on the bearing and held by the lips
at the ends or tied with a cord as before. There is no fear
of having the bearings too large by this plan ; it is the
opposite fault that is to be guarded against. The fit will
not be so good as one that is scraped, but will do very well,
except for high speeds.

As to the material for moulded bearings, there is no plan
so good as to send to a responsible house which prepares
these alloys and purchase the metal, explaining its purpose
and leaving its composition to the manufacturer.

In attempting to mix the metal there is generally more
lost by oxidation and other waste than the profit of the
regular smelter amounts to ; besides, the composition is
rarely right, and seldom well mixed.

For slow bearings, pure zinc or worn-out printer's type
does well, but with all that run at high speeds the best
metal is none too good.

We may add on the general subject of the material for
bearings in wood machines, in which every wood manufac-
turer is interested, that moulded bearings made from
alloys are only to be considered as an expedient for cheap

92 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

fitting, good enough in many places where there is no
considerable pressure, but if there was wanting any proof
to show that they are not best for wood machines, it would
be found in the fact that they have to be continually
renewed. The dust from wood machines which cannot
be avoided gets into the bearings and clings with great
tenacity to the soft metal, and the spindles are continually
going out of line from the wear that must of necessity take
place. Brass bearings about 6 parts copper to 1 of tin,
or harder, are the best for high-speed spindles, and if
properly fitted and taken care of, will last as long as the
machine itself. After the most careful experiments with
moulded bearings by some of the European builders of
wood machines, they were discarded for brass bearings.

These opinions on moulded bearings are given with a
full knowledge of their extended use in many branches
of machine manufacture, and the good results obtained in
locomotive building and in marine engine work, but the
conditions of high-speed wood machines require some-
thing else, unless operated by the highest skill and by
those who understand how to renew them in a proper
manner. We have moulded bearings, however, on nearly
all wood machines, and shall no doubt always have them
for the cheaper class of machines, so that whether right or
wrong, they must be taken care of.

LUBRICATING WOOD MACHINERY.

Considering the quantity of oil that is used in wood-
working establishments, its cost, and the great difference
between its careless and its economical use makes it a
subject worth marked attention. There can only be a
certain quantity of oil utilized, no matter how much is

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 93

poured on or wasted, and there is little risk in the assertion,
that where a pint is needed, four pints are wasted. This
waste leads to the use of cheap oil to reduce the expense,
and the general result is that if the cheap oil used care-
lessly was represented in good oil used carefully, it would
be equal to the difference between sperm oil of the finest
grade, compared with the poorest paraffine oils.

Lubricating is, with most kinds of machinery, a question
of economy, rather than of efficiency. At slow speeds,
except when there is great pressure, almost any kind of
oil will do for lubrication ; but in the case of high speed,
as in wood-cutting machines, the very practicability of
their operation depends upon efficient lubrication.

It is not proposed to consider the character of lubricants
here : they are all grease, or ought to be, and their lubri-
cating power, or endurance, is directly as the amount of
grease they contain, and as the amount of other matter
they do not contain. It is to be regretted that, among
the many exhaustive researches that have been made in
scientific matters, but little, if anything, has been done
to explain and fix standards for lubricating oils. Every
manufacturer is annoyed by the persistent visits of the
agents of paraffine oil dealers, who have some Latin,
Greek, or Choctaw name for their compounds, which are
represented as having some peculiar power of lubricating
from their chemical nature. The fact is, in plain terms,
that their worth is as the amount of grease they contain ;
and as the market value of grease is nearly always
constant, the different grades of oil can be considered as
representing it in various states of dilution.

Next to the quality of the oil the most important matter
is how to apply it economically to the bearings.

Constant lubricating can be considered as divided into

94 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

the two general plans ; — circulating the oil in bearings,
using it over and over again, and feeding it to the bearing
as it is worn out or used up and then allowing it to run
off. The first plan includes what are generally termed
self-oiling bearings, constructed with cells or oil-chambers,
beneath the shaft from which the oil is fed up with wicks, or
in some cases through small holes, by capillary attraction,
and after circulating through the bearing runs off into
the oil-cell to be again fed up, until it is worn out. We
have just passed through a mania for self-oiling bearings,
which have been applied on all parts of wood machines,
and we are now settling down to a more common-sense
view of the matter, by looking for the best means of sup-
plying oil to the bearings as it is required, or as it is worn
out. To pour it on a bearing at intervals from a can, is
simply to waste three-fourths of all that is used, even if
done with ordinary care, and this plan is not to be con-
sidered except in cases where no other can be applied ; so
that the choice rests between circulating oil-cells, and the
oil -feeders placed on the top of the bearing.

The difference between the two plans may be stated as
follows ; — with oil-cells the oil is circulated, or used over
repeatedly ; the cells and the wicks are generally inac-
cessible and out of sight ; the arrangement cannot be
applied to bearings at pleasure, but must be specially
constructed when they are made; and more important
than all, the workmen, as a rule, have but little confidence
in a thing they cannot see, and oil bearings as often with
their cans as though there were no oil-cells.

With the glass oil-feeders that are now used, the oil is
fed to the bearing as it is needed ; the supply of oil can at
all times be seen; the feeders can be applied to almost
any bearing, no matter what its construction.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 95

There is, however, this objection to the last plan, that
the oil will be fed and wasted when the machine, or bear-
ing, is not running — a difficulty that we are not likely to
get over without adding complication.

This waste is, however, more than compensated in the
fact that the workmen have confidence in these feeders,
and will take care of and rely upon them to oil the bear-
ings, which is not the case with the concealed oil-cells.
One of the most prominent of engineering firms has by
careful experiments determined that a given quantity of
oil will last a longer time and give a better result, if fed
to the bearing from the top and when worn out allowed
to run off; and considering the facility with which these
oilers can be applied with the certainty of their action, we
have no fear in recommending them for wood machines.

The wicks should be of wire wound round with textile
material, ordinary wicking for instance, which can, by
closing it together or stretching it on the wire, be made
to feed more or less as required.

All the bearings of wood machines that run at a high
speed should have tallow-cups, no matter what other
means are used to lubricate them ; they cost nothing,
and are equivalent to placing a sentinel, or safeguard,
over the bearing to protect it from accident in case the
ordinary means of oiling should fail.

FIG. 40.

Fig. 40 shows a common box-cap with a tallow-cup as
they should be arranged whenever there is room above

96 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

the bearing. The oiling is effected through the centre hole
in the boss, while the cavity around it is to be packed with
tallow. If the bearing heats, the tallow is melted, and
runs through the holes seen at each end. These holes
should be as large as the size of the shaft will admit, so
that the tallow can remain at all times in contact with the
shaft.

Tallow alone is too hard, it requires too much heat to
melt it, except in warm weather, and should be mixed

with lard, when necessary, to give
FlG- 41- the proper consistency.

For bearings that run at the
highest speed a good plan is to
cut a narrow groove along the top
and bottom, as seen in Fig. 41,
which, if filled with felt, or soft
wood, retains and distributes the

oil over the surface, and forms a lodging place for dust or
grit that may get into the bearing.

THE CAKE OF BEARINGS.

The care of bearings can hardly be considered as be-
longing to repairing machinery, and it is thought best to
notice it as a separate matter.

To take care of the bearings of a high-speed wood
machine, is one of the most intricate and difficult things
which the operator has to do, and even after years of ex-
perience he can seldom tell at once, or with any cer-
tainty, the cause of a bearing heating.

When a bearing becomes hot, a machine stops ; if on
the engine or line shafts, all the machines stop; so that

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 97

it is an important matter to know how to treat it. To
remove the cause is of course the best plan, and the first
thing to be done ; but the cause is sometimes not so easy
to determine. Aside from becoming dry for the want of
lubrication, the cause of heating may be want of truth in
the shaft, either from not being round or from being
sprung. It may be for the want of a fit, and lack of
surface, from being too tight, or from over-pressure — that
is, too much pressure for the amount of surface.

Among all these the question is first to tell with which
the trouble lies ; and next, how to apply a remedy in the
soonest and surest manner. When a bearing heats, if the
shaft is small, and can be freed from gearing and belts,
first try to shake it with a lever, or otherwise, to see if it is
loose enough ; if so, next screw down the cap until it binds
a little, and then turn the shaft by hand, watching carefully
whether it binds at one place more than another ; the least
irregularity can be discerned in this way, and indicates that
the bearing is not round, and needs turning. If the
shaft is crooked, it is detected by holding a point against
it while running — a matter that anyone understands.

If none of these things appear, next take the shaft out
and examine the bearing ; see where the shaft bears,
whether at one end only, or on a line through the bottom,
or on the sides. Examine the cap to see whether it shifts,
so as to bind on the sides. This want of surface is the
most common cause of heating with the bearings of new
machinery, and, perhaps, the most common in bearings
that have been remoulded ; if out of truth, scrape off the
points where the shaft bears until it touches throughout,
as explained previously. Use good oil in starting, and if
necessary cool the bearing for a time with water.

Never place any faith in compounds of plumbago, salt,

98 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

soap, or anything of the kind ; they may have claims as
lubricants, but it is generally a waste of time, to try to
conquer a hot bearing by any other plan than to correct
the mechanical defect, which lies at the bottom.

THE PEINCIPLES OF WOOD CUTTING.

It was intended to confine this treatise as much as
possible to practical shop matters, and not to include the
principles of machine construction or of machine action ;
but it is evident that a mechanic qualified to take care
of, to set, arrange, and adjust, or to devise ways and
means of working with cutters, should proceed upon
general principles and understand the theory of their
action. Therefore the following brief article on the
subject, from the writer's * Treatise on the Construction
and Operation of Wood-cutting Machines/ may be read
with advantage.

" Cutting wood consists of two distinct operations ; cross
cutting the fibre, and splitting it off parallel to its lamina-
tion or grain.

" The two operations are in all cases combined ; for to
remove the wood both must be performed, and to go in-
telligently about the construction of machines and cutters,
this principle must never be lost sight of. The greatest
amount of power and the best edges are required to cross
cut the fibre. To illustrate by a familiar example; — To
cross cut a block 12 inches square requires a considerable
amount of effort and time, but a single blow will serve to
split it in two, parallel to the fibre.

"This principle exists throughout the whole range of
wood cutting with the same general conditions in all cases ;

THE OPERATOR S HANDBOOK. lly

a boring auger furnishes another example, different from
the one given as an operation, but the same in principle.

"In boring, the main power is needed to cross cut the
fibre with the ' spurs ' or i jaws ' while the wood is split off
and raised from the bottom of the hole without much
effort ; the spurs require frequent sharping, must have
thin edges, and are soon worn away ; while the opposite is
true of the radial or splitting edges, which may be blunt or
dull, and yet work well enough and without much power.

" Another principle to be observed is that the cross
cutting or cross severing of the fibre must precede the
splitting process ; the cross-cutting edges must act first and
project beyond the splitting edges. There are no exceptions
to this rule, which is from necessity carried out in most cases ;
yet it is not unfrequent to find tools working on the contrary
principle, tearing instead of cutting away the wood.

"In some cases the wood is cross cut at such short
intervals or lengths, that no splitting edges are needed,
yet the operation is the same. A splitting saw is an
example of this kind; each tooth cuts away its shaving,
transverse to, or across the fibre, which is split off in the
act- of cross cutting without requiring separate edges. The
cross-cut saw is an example of the same kind, although
apparently different ; the different shaped teeth that are
required arise from the manner in whicn they are applied.
AVith the ripping or slitting saw the plate is parallel to
the fibre, and with the cross-cut saw it is transverse to the
fibre; the cutting edges in both cases have nearly the
same relation to and act in the same manner on the fibres
or grain of the wood; in short, the difference between
cross cutting and ripping saw teeth comes from the
rotation being with or across the grain, and not from a
difference in the operation of cutting.

H 2

100 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

" The line of the edge is parallel to the plate in cross
cutting, and transverse to the plate in slitting. As before
remarked all operations in wood cutting are the same
in principle, and can be resolved into some such simple
propositions as follow ; —

"First. — Wood cutting consists in two operations or
processes ; cross cutting and splitting.

" Second. — Tools for wood cutting must have indepen-
dent edges directed to these two operations, unless the
wood is cross cut into short lengths, as in the case of saws.

" Third. — The cross-cutting edges must project beyond
those for splitting, and act first, as in grooving and
tenoning heads.

" Fourth. — Cross-cutting edges will, if applied at ' an
angle to the fibre,' act with less power and be more
durable.

" Fifth. — Splitting-edges act best when parallel to the
fibre, but ' at an angle to the direction of their movement.'

" Sixth. — Cutters for perforating, or end tools, as we
will call them, should be arranged to have their action
balanced across the centre whenever practicable, to pre-
vent jar and vibration."

These propositions comprehend the whole system of
cutter action, and as all wood manufacture is by cutting,
they may also be said to comprehend all that is done in
working wood.

We shall not attempt to show their application to
planing, moulding, rabbeting, sawing, grooving, shaping
and other cutters, the reader can observe this himself, and
thus will acquire, if he has not already done so, a general
idea of principles, that will guide him in making, setting,
and arranging cutters for all kinds of work, without fear
of making mistakes and without having to try whether

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 101

this plan or that plan will work. It will also furnish a
clue to the proper form of saw teeth, shearing knives, and
other details, about which there is a great diversity of
opinion.

THE ANGLE OF WOOD CUTTERS.

While the operators of wood machines are not expected
to construct their own cutter-heads, it is expected that they
will furnish plans and instructions to others as to how
they should be made, and as the angles at which the cutters
act is an important matter in the making of machines, it
deserves some notice here.

The views given on the subject and the examples
shown are not based upon theoretical inference so much
as upon practical experiment. There are some very ob-
scure conditions connected with the action of wood cutters ;
if they moved as slowly as metal-cutting tools we could
observe and note the process of their action, but when
in motion they are practically invisible, and nothing can
be determined except by comparative experiments.

A general object among wood workmen seems to be to
get as low or acute an angle for cutters as possible,
regardless of the particular uses to which they are applied,
and then to prevent slivering, or pulling out the wood, by
means of caps. There are, of course, exceptions to this
rule, especially with small cutter-heads, as in the case of
shaping machines, but exceptions are generally necessary
from the form of constructing the cutter-head rather
than the result of any plans that have reference to the
work. Never trouble with nor attempt to use caps on the
cutters of power machines; they are expensive, inefficient
to perform the intended purpose, and besides unnecessary.

102 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

Any kind of wood, including boxwood, rosewood, soft
wood or green wood of all descriptions can be worked
without caps, or chip breakers, as they are sometimes
called, simply by giving the edges a proper angle, and
attending to other conditions to be noted.

In planing veneers by hand it has long been demon-
strated that the plane iron requires a much higher angle
than for other work. It is also known that scraping tools
with blunt edges are the only tools that can be used in
turning hard woods or ivory ; in fact with all hand tools
the principle of varying angles adapted to the work seems
to be well known and generally applied, but when we
come to power' tools we find planers and moulding
machines made with their cutters at a constant angle,
usually as acute as possible.

In determining the angle of cutters the following pro-
positions are laid down ; —

1st. In cutting clean pine for surfacing, matching, or
moulding, the angle of the cutters can be as low as prac-
ticable to clear a good washer and holding bolt with a
standard head.

2nd. An acute angle requires a thin edge, and a thin
edge cannot at the same time be a hard one, nor, for that
reason, a sharp one, except in working soft clean lumber.

3rd. An edge may be hard, and kept sharp, as the angle
is obtuse and the bevel short.

4th. In cutting thin shavings the operation is altogether
cross cutting, and a sharp edge is more important than a
thin one.

5th. As the angle of cutters becomes more obtuse, or
higher, the shape of the edge approaches nearer to having
the same profile as the work, and the cutters for moulded
forms are cheaper and more easily made and kept in order
than if at a low angle.

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

103

From these propositions we can deduce the following
rules, which are recommended to operators when they
have occasion to determine the angle and bevel of wood
cutters ; —

For planing soft wood the angle at Fig. 42, of 40 degrees,
is suitable.

FIG. 42.

FIG. 43.

,4k

For mixed work, partly soft and partly hard wood, the
angle at Fig. 43 is preferable ; it is a mean to comprehend
the two kinds of wood.

104

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

For working hard wood alone, such as oak, ash, walnut,
cherry, or mahogany, the angle Fig. 44 is best, while

FIG. 44.

for the very hardest varieties, such as boxwood, rosewood,
banyan, cocoa, and ebony, working crotch or cross-grained
wood, or at an angle against the grain, the cutters should
be set as in Fig. 45.

FIG. 45.

It is becoming of late years a common thing for planer
men to grind a short bevel on the under side of the knives
for working hard or cross-grained lumber, which is sub-

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 105

stantially the same thing as changing the angle of the
cutters and making the bevel shorter. It is an excellent
plan, as it would be impossible to change the cylinders
when a machine has a variety of work to do, but by having
some extra knives ground at different bevels it becomes
an easy matter' to change them, and one that will pay
well for the trouble, especially if the knives are tempered
harder as the bevel becomes more obtuse.

It will be found in practice that a set of knives that are
hardened to a very pale straw colour, and with a bevel
ground on the face side, just enough to keep the edge from
breaking out, will run twice as long and do smoother work
on walnut, ash, or oak wood, and will not pull out the
stuff where it is knotty or cross-grained.

It has also become a common practice in some parts of
the country to turn the matcher cutters of flooring
machines upside down, that is, to turn the grinding bevel
to the lumber ; this is an effort in the same direction ; a
slow change from the necessities of practice, instead of
from inference, as it might be. This way of getting an
obtuse angle is going a little farther than is recommended
here, but to halve the matter by grinding on both sides will
be found an advantage in matching hard wood, including
yellow pine. The plan is an old one. The Knowles
matching heads, introduced about 1850, had this idea
fully carried out by having the bevel on the inside of the
cutters ; they were always considered as being capable of
working any kind of lumber without tearing, and without
clips or pressure pads, yet for some strange reason the
plan was not carried out in the common matcher heads,
probably from their being too expensive. We will notice
one more fact bearing on this matter, that of machines for
making wave mouldings ; such mouldings are cut smooth,

106 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

and in part at an acute angle against the grain. These
mouldings are not as a rule torn or spoiled in working,
yet the whole secret of their manufacture, often a matter
of curiosity, is nothing more than to set the cutters at
right angles to the face of the moulding. The feed move-
ment is given to the wood, and the reciprocating motion to
the cutters, which act as scrapers.

SHAKPENING CUTTEKS AND SAWS.

If the cost of sharpening cutters and saws in a wood-
working factory were added to the profits, it would make
a great difference in the earnings. We have no idea of
the cost until we keep an account of the time — the
detention of machines, wear of files, and grinding ma-
chinery, and the wear of the cutters themselves due to
grinding and sharpening.

Corundum or emery wheels are now generally used for
dressing both saws and cutters, and their introduction
during the last five years has been one of the principal
improvements that has taken place in wood manufac-
ture. The saving of both time and files, and the more
accurate grinding that can be done on cutters, amounts
to a saving of onetwentieth of the whole labour account
for machine work, when these wheels are properly and
fully applied.

Saws are now sharpened with such wheels, in cases
when they can be removed from their mandrils ; and there
is no doubt that lumber mills could be fitted with a port-
able grinding apparatus, that could be adjusted to the
teeth in such a manner as to sharpen the saws sooner and
better than with files.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 107

Fd. Arbey, a prominent builder of wood machines in
France, fits his planing machines with grinding wheels
that are traversed parallel to the cylinder, and produces
with the arrangement edges that can in no other way be
made so true and straight; they are absolutely perfect.
We may grind planer knives tolerably straight with a
common slide and a stone, using a straight-edge ; but when
they are set, the chances are that they cannot be got true
on the cylinder; but with this self-contained grinding
apparatus the edges are ground precisely parallel to the
axis of the cylinder, besides avoiding the inaccuracy and
loss of time needed to remove and reset them. Often the
machines have to be stopped during the time of grinding,
and the chances are that the detention will be less than
what would be required to remove and reset the knives
without grinding them. The attention of wood manufac-
turers is invited to this thing as one that may effect a
great saving and convenience.

It was remarked at the beginning that the main wear
upon cutters was from grinding. This should have read by
improper grinding.

Two-thirds at least of the wear of flat or straight
cutters come from careless grinding, or over-grinding.
To grind a cutter up to its edge makes a waste of from
Jr to sV of an inch of its length in all cases. The ground
edge is not fit to work with, and after grinding it is neces-
sary to whet a new bevel for a working edge before using
it, and the cutter is then just in the condition it would
have been if the grinding had been stopped short of the
edge, leaving what we will term a whetting bevel. This is
especially true of moulding cutters with an irregular profile
at their edges, which should from the nature of their work,
if there were no other reasons, have a compound bevel.

108 THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

Fig. 46 shows a cutter with a compound or double bevel ,
and Fig. 47 one with a single bevel.

FIG. 4G. FIG. 47.

Now that the cutter shown at Fig. 46 is as stiff and
strong as the one at Fig. 47 no one will dispute, and that
the first is more easily whet and ground is obvious.

The art of taking care of cutters consists in whetting
the edges as the wear requires it, and never grinding to
the edge, or near enough to weaken it. If a cutter is not
straight, joint it the first thing, then grind the whetting
bevel very carefully, and afterwards the grinding bevel,
which should never come nearer than ^ of an inch from
the cutting edge.

For planer-knives, have a coarse grain, soft stone, of the
kind known as machine stone, not less than 40 inches in
diameter when new ; have a tight water box and hood,
and in grinding use a heavy stream of water; the stone
should be strongly belted, and instead of rubbing for an
hour to make an edge on a fine hard stone, you will in ten
minutes finish the knife, and have fifty minutes saved to
devote to some more agreeable work. Grinding flat cutters
is not — or at least should not be — making an edge ; it is
removing the surplus material used to support the edge.

For moulding irons, emery wheels are best. They
should, however, for this purpose be specially arranged by
having not less than five wheels on a spindle, arranged so

THE OPERATOR S HANDBOOK.

109

that they can be shifted to different positions, or taken off
and put on instantly, as may be required.

The machines manu-
factured and sold in
the market for ordinary
grinding purposes are
not fitted for use in
wood shops, and it is
better to have them
specially made, as in
Fig. 48, than to pur-
chase the ordinary ma-
chines used for general
grinding. There will,
no doubt, in time be
modifications for mould-
ing cutters; but there «
are none now in general £
use that are convenient. ^

The wheels can be
moulded on the flanges,
as seen in the section
at the centre, the emery
being from 2 to 3 inches
deep, which is as much
as can be worn out in
any case ; manufac-
turers of wheels will
furnish the disks, or they
can be prepared and
sent to their works to
have the rims moulded
on them.

110 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

In preparing the disks, or centre plates, have at least
two sets, so that one can be sent to have the rims renewed
while the others are in use.

Fig. 49 represents a wet-stone machine for grinding
moulding irons, used in the large mills in England. It is

FIG. 49.

well adapted to the purpose, and with the proper kind
of stones will last a long time, and preserve the shape
on the periphery. There is no doubt, however, of the
emery wheels being best, after the men have learned to
use them. At first, the stones will have the preference, as
the use of the wheels requires some special knowledge
and skill, while grinding with stones is well and generally
understood.

For working flooring and other kinds of planing, thin
flexible cutters made from the best sheet cast steel, from
14 to 12 gauge in thickness, will be found a cheap and
effective kind of knife ; they are now regularly made
to any pattern by saw makers and tempered to a hard
filing temper,' so that they can be sharpened on the
cylinder without taking them off. To hold them there
should be used a stiff steel cap, T5^- to f in. thick, slightly
concave on its under side, and made without having the
bolt holes slotted. In many cases thin knives of this kind
are used by placing old cutters on the back, instead of
having proper caps made, a plan that is apt to lead to a

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. Ill

bad result. Their use is no experiment, and when adopted,
if at all, it should be done, like everything else, under fair
conditions and not with a view to experiment only. The
successful working of these thin cutters depends upon their
being held firmly, and in any case where they have failed
to work satisfactorily, it will generally be found that the
fault was in the caps, unless it was from the bad quality
of the steel. Sheet cast steel from the best makers is by
no means an inferior article for such cutters if carefully
worked and not overheated in tempering. What will
answer for a saw will not do for cutters that have sharp
edges, not that a saw is not better if made from fine steel,
but the edges are more obtuse and not so liable to break.

These flexible cutters were patented first by Godeau in
France, subsequently by Gedge in England, and perhaps
several times in America, so that the plan is well patented,
if that is to be regarded as a recommendation. In
sharping these cutters, fine float mill saw files of the
best quality should be used. As a rule it is an expensive
plan to sharpen tempered steel tools with files, but in
this case the cutter is so thin, and there is so little to file
away, that when the time of taking off and resetting solid
cutters is considered, there is a great saving of cost by the
use of these thin ones, although sharpened with files. The
edge must of course be finished with a stone to make it
smooth.

A good rule, or we may say a good improvement,
about wood shops, can be effected by abandoning hard fine
stones for grinding tools of any kind, except moulding bits.
They are used under the false impression that they are
to make edges, but are really a machine to remove and
cut away metal, like a lathe or planing machine, with
the difference that they will cut hardened steel, which

112 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

the others will not; and until the grindstone comes to
be considered in this light, it must be expected that a
great waste of time and a great waste of tools will take
place. In grinding, get a large stone of the kind before
described, arrange so as to use plenty of water, without
making a slop about the stone; have the belts strong
enough to overcome any amount of pressure in grinding,
and the result will be that from being a slow, tedious job,
grinding will be but a trifle, and be done to a great deal
more satisfaction by the workmen.

For sharpening small tools, such as auger bits, mortise
chisels, or others that have angular corners, have a neat
case, containing about a dozen of good files with various
sections, triangular, square, round, half-round, knife edge,
flat, and so on, set in not to rub together, each one to
have its own handle ; in the same case should be kept
several slips of Washita stone, ground to various forms
on their edges, to finish with.

Wood workmen having every facility to prepare lockers
and cases, generally verify the old proverb in being
without them. In a machine shop there are, as a rule,
places to keep tools and stores; the planers, lathes, and
drills have their lockers ; but in our wood shops the tools
generally lie around loose, and are only found, when
wanted, after a good hunt, provided the article has not
gone out in the shavings and into the furnace. In the
matter of files alluded to, how much neater and more
economical it is to have a case to keep them in, than to
have them lying on the benches, to be used for purposes
not intended, and spoiled ; one-half the number will do
if taken care of, and the whole time of hunting for them
be saved, to say nothing of doing without them just when
they are most needed.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 113

To go into a wood shop and find a job bench containing
three or four files with the tips broken off, a cob handle to
be used between them, a monkey wrench without a handle,
or without a screw, a lot of nails, old bolts, paint pots, and
other junk piled upon it, at once indicates the character
of the establishment; and as what the manager does
generally determines what the men do, he can be set down
as responsible for the whole. We cannot therefore too
earnestly recommend order and system in all things, espe-
cially in such appliances as relate to tool dressing, which
is the odd department in a wood shop, and an important
one if measured by its expenses, all of which go to the
wrong side of the accounts.

SAWS AND SAWING MACHINERY.
CIRCULAR SAWS.

Circular sawing machines, or saw benches as they are
generally called, are in America for the most part made
by the wood manufacturers themselves, with wooden frames
and wooden tops, both for slitting and for cross cutting.

In. speaking of saws, therefore, we shall consider the
manner of constructing the machines as well as how to
run them, because they are generally of home manu-
facture, but more especially because the matter is one
that deserves more consideration than it has heretofore
received. They are, as a class of machines, less perfectly
made than almost any other in use, which is only to be
accounted for in the fact that we regard them as a kind of
rough blocking-out machine, and perhaps because they are
so familiar that we do not trouble to investigate them.

Considering the great number of saws that are used, and
that they are the principal and first machines in most

i

114 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

kinds of wood manufacture, it is strange that we do not
make as much progress in their improvement as in other
machines, or as their relative importance would seem to
claim. Nothing is more common in wood shops than
to find slitting benches six to eight feet long, with a
mandril in the centre, and a guard extending nearly the
whole length of the top. Even prominent makers are con-
tinually building machines arranged in this way. A bench
of this length with a guard extending past the plate cannot
work properly or do true work ; and if it would, no one
could reach it to operate with any convenience. The rear
end of a bench is needed to support the timber after it has
passed out of reach, but the front end next the sawyer
should never be so long but that the saw can be easily
reached, say from 20 to 24 inches beyond the teeth of the
smallest saws used.

The gauges should never extend much, if any, beyond
the front teeth, as shown in Fig. 34, and described before ;
there is no need of framing an argument in this matter, it
is too plain to need discussion.

With carriage saws, such as are used for jointing floor
boards or slitting very long stuff, when the operator has
to walk along the side of the bench, the saw may, of course,
stand at any part of the bench ; the centre of the slide
would be the proper place, and a guard behind the saw
may be needed, but not an extension of the one in front ;
it should be a separate one, that can be set on a different
line to prevent 'crowding the piece on the saw, and so that
both gauges may be set parallel to the saw plate. The
rear guard should only be used when indispensable, which
means almost the same thing as not at all.

Circular saws in America, except for timber cutting,
are generally without guides to support them, and without
packing boxes to keep the saw oiled and clear of gum.

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

115

FIG. 50.

FIG. 51.

The result is that the saws have to be at least one-third
thicker in order to be rigid enough for their work, con-
suming power, and wasting kerf in proportion. This needs
thorough reform,
and all benches
where the top is
not arranged to
adjust for grooving
should have guides
and packing boxes.
Fig. 50 is a section
through a set of
guides for the
front, and Fig. 51,
a section through
a packing box for
the rear, adapted
to an ordinary rip-
ping saw bench.

The front half
of the table a
should be loose on
the frame, and arranged to slide back to remove the saw.
If made of wood it can be held flush with hard wood dowels
or cross cleats on the bottom, and when together be held
by iron dowels or screws passing clown through from the
top. The front guides, Fig. 50, should be of hard wood,
with the end to the saw, the bolt-holes slotted so as to set
them up for wear. The packing or oiling boxes at Fig. 51
are arranged the same way, so that the lower bars can
be kept up against the plate. The chambers are filled by
winding packing of hemp or cotton about a square strip of
wood, until it will fill the cavity, and then soaking in oil
before putting it in. Holes can be made to oil the pack-

i 2

116

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

ing regularly, and the effect will be found quite different
from throwing oil on the plate — a most wasteful and yet
common custom.

The advantages derived from supporting the saw both
at the back and front are obvious, and the experiment will
satisfy anyone of its utility. In England all ripping saws
are arranged for a packing, consisting generally of nothing
more than a groove along the side of the plate, into which
a bar of wood wound with packing can be pressed. This,
of course, does for the front of the saw, but not so well
behind, and is inconvenient in taking out the hand plates
with which benches in that country are usually fitted.

In addition to what has already been said about saw
gauges, it is as well to observe that the greater their
ingenuity and complication, the less their utility ; a rule
that holds good in most other things. The guides and
packing boxes beneath the top are out of the way, out of
danger, and require no special attention ; but the gauges,
with everything about the top of a bench, must be strong
and simple.

As it will often be necessary to make, or to have made,
saw mandrils for different purposes, we give the following
Table of dimensions, which can be referred to for pro-
portions ; —

For
Saws to
the

diam. of

Diatn. of
Mandril.

Length
over
Bear-
ings.

Diam. of
Pulley.

Face of
Pulley.

Length
of
Bearing.

Diam. of
Collars.

Diam. of
Hole in
Saw.

Number
of Revo-
lutions
a Minute.

Size of
Nut

n

„

„

n

n

„

„

„

„

10

H

18

5

4

4i

2*

1

3000

|

15

H

20

6

5

5

3

H

2700

1

20

if

24

8

7

5i

3*

H

2400

H

25

H

27

10

8

6

4

if

2100

H

30

if

31

12

9

7

H

H

1800

If

36

2

36

14

10

8

5

If

1500

H

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 117

\\**J* \tt mjff-

These proportions exceed those of common practice,
especially in belt power, but are none too large to give
a good result. Saw mandrils, instead of being as light
as they can be to do their work, should be as strong as
possible, to stand the speed, and there can be no reason
for making them less, except a trifling saving in first
cost, which in this, as in many other cases, turns out
losing in the second cost.

The saw collars should be of wrought iron, welded on ;
the pulleys, when on the end, put on with a nut and a
taper fit, without keys, which are not necessary.

The form of teeth for ripping saws, would require
lengthy notice to comprehend all the various plans in
practice, and would be of but little use ; most operators,
although they may not keep the teeth of saws to a proper
shape, know what that shape should be. The proper
form is easily determined, from the principles already
laid down, as well as from the nature of the work, and
the whole can be summed up in a sentence — have the
points as thin, and at an angle as acute, as they will
stand.

In setting saws the custom is to bend the teeth : a great
many set differently, but bending is the most common
practice, so common indeed, that it is a bold assertion to
say that it is wrong, or that another plan is better. Yet
to bend a saw tooth, is not to set it, in a technical sense,
and hardly in any other sense, for it soon comes out in
working. A tooth in being set over must have a sharp
blow on the inside to stretch the steel, and hold it in
position, and as it is the easiest and truest plan to set saws
of any kind with a hammer, there is no reason why it
should not be practised.

118

THE OPEKATOES HANDBOOK.

For setting circular saws, a frame, as shown in Fig. 52,
is convenient. It consists of a rail, say 8x5 inches, of

FIG. 52.

TOP

1

o

a 1

hard wood, with a sliding block on top, fitted with wood
studs of various sizes to fit the holes in the saws ; on one
end is placed a steel laid anvil, to weigh from 15 Ibs. to
30 Ibs., with its face bevelled off to, say, ten degrees each
way from the centre. The saw being placed on the stud,
is moved out or in upon the anvil until the teeth come
over the centre ; the anvil is turned until its corner or
apex comes across the tooth, in the position shown by the
dotted lines, with the tooth standing over from -^ to \
inch as the amount of set needed and the size of the
tooth may require. The tooth is then struck a quick
sharp blow with a light hammer, at an angle as shown
by the line a, or several blows, until the bottom of

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. , 110

the tooth is set over as shown. This forms a kind of
curved scraper edge on the outside, which keeps the side
of the tooth clear of the wood, scrapes the surfaces smooth,
and will stay there until filed away in sharpening. The
teeth will be a little bruised after setting, but this bruising
does no harm and is removed in a single filing.

All kinds of circular saws can be set on the same device.
It is cheap to make, always in order, and easily under-
stood. The teeth of cross-cutting saws require setting at
a different angle, but can be set in the same manner.
Finally, on the subject of circular saws, they are too
much regarded as a kind of blocking-out machine, to
divide stuff into pieces that are afterwards to be brought
to dimensions. This comes from the fact that the great
object in the United States has hitherto been to save
labour, and not, as in Europe, to save material. If a man
in sawing has, from the imperfection of his machine, to
allow an eighth of an inch on each piece for bad sawing,
and his saw cuts out one-third more kerf than is necessary,
he soon saws up his wages in waste, especially with the
more valuable kinds of lumber.

'A sawing machine for slitting should be the most care-
fully and accurately constructed in all regards; the
lumber should and can be cut down to the size, leaving
just enough to dress it smooth. The frames and tops,
more than any other machine, need to be made of iron,
so as to withstand rough use, dampness, and wear. These
are not theoretical propositions, but deductions from the
practice in countries where lumber is saved, a distinction
that cannot long exist at the prices that lumber has now
reached in the States.

Cut-off saws, like ripping saws, are often built in the
shops, with wooden framing, which is much better than in

120 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

the case of slitting benches. They are divided into two
kinds, those in which the saw is fed through the lumber,
and those that have carriages for moving the stuff, the
first for lumber that is long and unwieldy, and the second
for shorter and lighter work. The carriage cut-off saw is
best whenever the lumber is easier to move than the
saw, and the swing or travelling saw in the opposite case,
a rule easy to remember and easily understood.

The carriage saw has an advantage in its greater sim-
plicity, and the consequent durability, of its mechanism.
The plans of construction are endless, and no suggestions
of use can be given here, except that the carriages should
be kept square by means of a rack on each end, gearing
into pinions on a shaft extending along under the carriage ;
this admits of its being mounted on rollers, which could
not well be used without the squaring shaft.

BAND SAWS.

Among the improvements in wood-working machinery
none have been so rapidly and generally adopted in
America as band saws. From having, as we may say,
none in use nine years ago (1864), we now find them in
nearly every shop of any size, and in some cases not only
doing scroll cutting, but used for straight lines. In at
least one large establishment in New York city no cir-
cular saws are used except for cross cutting — all other
sawing, coarse and fine, being done on the band saws.
As a matter of interest to the reader rather than to
convey any useful information, we will mention that
although it has so rapidly gone into use in the nine
years past, the machine was invented in 1808 by William

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 121

Newberry, of London, England, — not only invented,
but built in a good practical working form, as drawings
and descriptions yet in existence fully attest. Con-
sidering its present importance and extended use, it is
hard to realize or believe that a machine of the kind
should lie dormant for more than sixty years after its
invention.

What the future of the band saw may be is hard to fore-
tell ; but judged upon general principles that govern the
operation of all sawing, there is a probability of its sup-
planting every other method. Consisting of a thinner
blade than can otherwise be used, capable of any degree
of tension, and moving at a higher speed than it is pos-
sible to run other saws, its advantages are too obvious to
warrant any other conclusion. Besides, it cuts square
through the lumber, and, as a very important advantage,
is operated by rotary shafts and wheels running at a
moderate speed. There is, in fact, nothing to prevent
its use for every kind of sawing, unless it be from diffi-
cult conditions of operation, which have not thus far
arisen.

The fear of breaking blades, or the inability to manu-
facture them, seems to have been for forty years or more
what deterred people from using the machines. This
trouble has been overcome, and band saws of good quality
will do as much cutting as other saws, measured by their
value or cost. Joining the blades, from being regarded as
the next thing to impossible, has become so simple a
matter as to be performed in every shop, and almost by
any person.

To first speak of the blades, they should have a high
spring temper; if harder, they become more liable to
fracture, are difficult to sharpen, and will be broken in

122 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

setting. A saw that has not a good lively temper is
comparatively worthless.

It is quite impossible after a saw is finished to tell
whether it is properly tempered throughout; if an inch
even of its length has not been tempered, or is drawn by
polishing or grinding, it is as bad as though the whole
saw was wrong, for such spots cannot be found, and if they
were found, there would be no remedy but to cut them
out. We must therefore trust mainly to the skill and
good faith of the saw makers, and should patronize those
who have been longest and most successfully engaged in
their manufacture.

In selecting saws, a good plan to test the temper, if the
saw is not joined, is to roll up the ends, and see if it will
spring back straight or remain bent. If it spring back
nearly to its first shape, the temper is good. The texture
or grain of the steel, which is the only clue to quality,
can be determined by breaking a short piece from the
end of the blade. By unrolling the blade on the floor, it
can be tested as to straightness. The ends, if laid to-
gether, will show if it is parallel and of the same width
throughout.

The processes of joining now in use can be divided into
brazing and soldering, the distinction relating mainly to
how the joining is done rather than to any difference in
its nature. In what is termed soldering, the melting or
heating is effected with hot irons, and in brazing the saw
itself is put into the fire.

Brass, spelter, German silver, and other alloys can be
used, for joining, any of which make a joint that, if well
made, will be as strong as other parts of the blade, that
is, will stand an equal tension, for the tendency to fracture
is greatest alongside the joints, where the union takes

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 123

place between the tempered steel and the portion that is
annealed in making the joint.

For solder joints the silver solder of jewellers is con-
venient ; it is strong and melts at a low heat. The most
convenient form is to have it rolled in thin strips, so that
pieces the size of the lap can be cut off and laid between.
To make joints of this kind there is required a strong
heavy pair of wrought-iron tongs and some kind of a frame
to hold the saw straight, leaving the joint free at the ends
to be clasped with the tongs.

FIG. 53.

Fig. 53 shows a pair of tongs and scarfing frame for
soldering, adapted for blades to 2 inches wide.

The saw should be scarfed or tapered at the ends for
a length corresponding to one or two teeth, as the pitch
may determine. This scarfing must be done true and
level, or the joint will not be a close one.

Next cleanse the joint with acid, to remove grease ;
put the solder between, and clasp the saw with the tongs,
which should have a full red heat. As soon as the solder
runs, remove the tongs and apply a wet sponge or cloth to
restore the temper in part. The joint can then be filed
parallel by using a wire gauge or pair of calipers to
determine the thickness, being careful to file the proper
amount from each side.

This last is in fact the most difficult part of the opera-
tion, and requires great care to have the saw parallel and
straight, without making it thinner at the joint than at
other places.

124 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

Fig. 54 shows a forge for brazing band saws, which,
aside from the original cost of the outfit, is the cheapest
FJG 54 process, and certainly the

best plan of joining nar-
row blades. The fire is of
charcoal, about 2J inches
square; the degree of
heat is accurately regu-
lated by the treadle,
which is operated by the
foot.

The saw is first scarfed,
as in the other case, the
joint then wound with
brass wire, fluxed with
borax, and placed in the
fire until the brass melts
and runs into the joint ;
the saw is then to be
quickly removed from the
fire and placed upon a kind of anvil, and the joint quickly
pressed together while the brass is in a melted state. The
detached pieces shown below are details of the forge, for
concentrating the fire, holding the saw, and other pur-
poses.

One of the main points in operating band saws is to
avoid bending the blades edgewise, which is more easily
and frequently done than would be imagined. The wheels
require to be so adjusted that the saw will only touch,
and not bear against the back guides when not cutting ;
and as different saws and different positions of the guides
as to height will vary this back thrust, it requires constant
attention from the sawyer.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 125

The amount of back pressure is easily determined by
placing a piece of wood behind the saw while it is running
and pressing it forward, noting the amount of force it
requires, and then setting the wheels until it bears lightly
on the back.

This edge strain, as we will call it, is generally provided
for by an adjustment of the axis of the top wheel, which
every machine should have.

Different forms of teeth, the pitch, angle, and manner
of setting, are questions of much importance with large
saws that run with power feed; but for scroll cutting,
slitting, and with narrow blades generally, the matter of
teeth has not such importance — a fact that is sufficiently
proved by the great diversity of both opinion and practice
met with.

For hand slitting saws from 2 to 2J inches are better
than if wider. The perfection of manufacture and the
truth of the blades is apt to be as their width, and beyond
2£ inches wide the steel is not, as a rule, so good, or
the saws so true and straight ; besides, the tension needed
for 2^-inch blades is as much as an ordinary machine
with shafts 2J inches diameter will stand. There is a
general tendency to use wide saws for straight lines, but
the experience of the oldest and best makers, such as
Perin, of Paris, leads them to recommend narrow blades.

The firm mentioned rarely make blades exceeding 3
inches in width, unless to special order, and as we can
hardly hope to wear out more than an inch or two of
width in filing, it is difficult to imagine any use for the
width beyond what will allow of this wear. For slitting,
the bench and gauge can be of the common form, the
bottom guide attached to the table and the top one carried
on an adjustable bracket ; the speed can be from 5000 to

126 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

8000 feet a minute, the wheels not less than 4 feet in
diameter, either of wrought iron or of cast iron, bound
with wrought-iron bands, to prevent danger. Plain cast-
iron wheels are not suitable for any machine, even to run
at a low speed; for if strong enough to be safe, they must
at the same time be heavy, which, for top wheels, throws
a great strain upon the blades in starting the machine,
and also in sawing causes the top wheel to overrun the
bottom one when the saw first enters the wood.

KESAWING MACHINES.

Kesawing lumber, the main business in the wood shops
of other countries, is but a small affair in American mills.

Most planing mills have a resawing machine of some
kind, but it is only used to split thin boards and cut
lumber that is too thin to be sawed in the forest mills
and safely transported. In America lumber is nearly all
forest sawn, and conies to the manufacturer cut to size, as
near as can be, allowing for warping, shrinking, and irre-
gularity; not cut first into deals or flitches for trans-
portation, and then sawed again to sizes, as in Europe.
For this reason resawing machines are not so important,
nor so well understood in America

If we were to argue the merits of the two plans of
lumber traffic, it would be a difficult matter to defend our
own, or to show any reason for so great a waste as it occa-
sions. No doubt one of the strongest reasons for the
present system is the prejudice against resawing ma-
chinery. In considering resawing, it must be remem-
bered that a single blade splitting lumber of one to two
inches thick, is a different thing from a gang mill with

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 127

from six to twelve saws cutting flitches or deals, and to
manufacture thin boards cheaply, the gang saw must be
used.

Thin saws and slow feed are the rule for English ma-
chines ; the amount cut must be increased by the number
of blades, instead of crowding arid forcing one saw to
do three times as much as it should ; our American
system is the reverse of all this ; we try to, and do, force
a single blade through from 2000 to 3000 feet of lumber
in a day, — a thing incredible to people who have not
seen it, and the result is, as might be expected, bad
sawing, and a great waste of both lumber and power.

It is not expected to give any useful information about
resawing mills such as we have in use ; they must soon
pass away under a new lumber system, which enhanced
prices are bringing about, and gang saws will no doubt be
used for general resawing, and the band saw or circular
gaw for single lines.

Resawing deep stuff that is crooked, seasoned and dry,
when fed by rollers, is the most difficult of all sawing,
and will be the hardest kind to do with band saws, as it
is with all other saws; yet experiments thus far go to
confirm its future success, and when it is considered that
in cases where resawing has been done successfully with
band saws, the machines have in most cases been small
and poorly made, it assures the practicability of the thing
under more favourable conditions.

A band saw for resawing American lumber should never
exceed 3J inches wide, nor be less than 40 feet long, the
wheels 6 feet or more in diameter ; the speed of the saw
from 5000 to 8000 feet a minute. The teeth require a
coarse pitch, with a deep throat, but of some form to ensure
great stiffness, otherwise set cannot be kept in them.

128 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

For general resawing purposes, there is no saw better
than a compact iron-framed reciprocating machine, to
carry' from one to ten saws. What may be lost in speed
while working but one saw, will be gained when a gang
can be used; which would soon be a great share of the
time when the system of resawing was once begun. The
blades for such machines need not exceed 14 gauge, and
in most cases be thinner.

Looking, as we may, to a change in our resawing ma-
chinery, which is at this time open to that fatal objection
of being too slow, there is no need for devoting any space
here to the care and operation of the ordinary resawing
mill, nor to gang machines before we have them.

JIG SAWS.

With respect to jig saws, the band saw and duplicating
machines have driven the most of them out of use, and it
is to be sincerely hoped that further improvements will
do so entirely. What may be said of jig sawing need
not consume much space here. For ordinary wood work
a spring-strained fret saw to do the inside, or perforated
work, is all that is needed.

To set up a jig saw, select the strongest place in the
building, over a girder, if on an upper floor; if on a
ground floor, set it either on masonry or piles set in the
earth from three to four feet deep. If the saw is on an
upper floor, use a counter-balance equal to three-fourths
the weight of the reciprocating parts; this throws the
vibration on a horizontal plane, in which direction a floor
is the strongest of all foundations. If set on an earth
foundation, use no counter-balance, leaving the vibration

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 129

to fall vertically, and be resisted by the foundation. Never
drive jig saws at the highest possible speed ; the wear and
tear of the machinery will more than balance what is
gained in the speed of sawing.

In selecting men to run jig saws, or any saw for irre-
gular lines, two things must be considered — ingenuity and
skill to take care of the machine, and the faculty of fol-
lowing lines. Without practical experience, and reason-
ing from inference alone, we should conclude that almost
anyone could run a jig saw ; but that it requires a
peculiar faculty is to the experienced a well-known fact.
A ship caulker, a chipper, or a carpenter, in striking a
chisel or in driving nails, cannot tell, or hardly knows,
how the blows of the mallet or hammer are directed to the
head of the chisels or the nails: in chipping and caulking,
the blows are continually varying from one angle to an-
other, apparently without effort or care. The same faculty
that guides the hammer and mallet, whatever it may be
called, is needed in jig sawing. The sawyer who has this
faculty scarcely knows how he follows the lines ; he ap-
pears to do so without effort, and depends, in a large
degree, upon natural instead of acquired skill. Occa-
sionally men, who have great trouble in learning other
work, make good sawyers; some men cannot learn to
turn, others learn with great facility, and a manager who
would get the largest amount, of work done in the best
manner, and in a way most congenial to the men them-
selves, must watch these peculiarities, as they will be
sure to appear among workmen.

Saws for scroll work cut at all angles of the grain,
and should have what the nature of the work would
suggest, an intermediate form of teeth ; not pointed, as
for cross cutting, or square, as for slitting ; but a mean

K

130 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

between, and always in the hook form. A narrow
blade is not capable of withstanding back thrust, and
should, consequently, be so filed that the tendency will
be to lead into the wood instead of crowding back. A
triangular file gives a good shape for the teeth of web
saws, if they are not too deep, and the pitch not less than
one-fourth of an inch. Float files are not so good for
filing web saws as the double cut, known as Stubbs' files,
these, although they cost nearly twice as much, are the
cheapest in the end, because of the longer time they
will last. In selecting web saws, always examine how
they have been ground by the saw makers ; if they have
been hand scotched, as it is termed, by the grinders, and
the bevel is irregular, they will work badly ; machine
grinding is the only plan for producing a true blade, when
it is narrow, and bevelled back from the teeth.

PLANING MACHINERY.

After sawing comes planing, and as sawing, except
cutting out, is in America mainly done at the forest mills,
planing is the leading operation in most varieties of
wood manufacture.

To operate planing machines intelligently and with
the best result, one must understand the general principles
of their operation, to which we will first call attention.

Under the general name of planers are classed, first,
carriage machines, in which the lumber is moved in true
lines throughout its length by guides, known as dimension
planers, traversing planers, Daniel's planers.

Second, machines that reduce lumber to a uniform
thickness, or thickness and width at the same time, the

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 131

stuff being fed by rolls and moved continuously between
stationary guides and the cutters, such machines known
as surfacing machines, matching machines, and moulding
machines.

Third, surface planers, that cut away a constant amount
of wood, gauged from the surface that is planed ; in other
words, machines that have fixed pressure bars, both in
front and behind the cylinders. The under cylinder of a
double surfacing machine, or bottom cylinders generally,
are examples of surface planing.

These three classes of machines and their operations
are different in principle, and give totally different
results, yet the distinction hardly is recognized or
understood. Everyone knows the difference in the ma-
chines, and can tell what kind of machine is best for
a certain class of work ; but generally, from facts gathered
by experience, instead of a comprehensive knowledge of
the principles of wood planing. There is, to be sure,
nothing intricate in this difference between carriage,
parallel, and surface planing, yet it is no uncommon
thing to meet operators who have not studied the matter.

CARRIAGE PLANING.

All planing in straight lines has to be performed by
means of carriages on which the lumber is moved, unless
the pieces to be planed have two straight sides to guide
them. A carriage is nothing more than a means of
supplying for the time these two straight sides ; for when
the piece to be planed is fastened to the carriage, the two
are to be considered as one body, guided in two direc-
tions, vertically and horizontally, by the track beneath,

K 2

132 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

which supplies the straight sides the lumber itself lacks.
To make it more plain we can say that the lumber is not
gauged from and by the side opposite to the one being
planed, as in matching or moulding machines, but from
an artificial face, which has been attached to the piece
to guide it, consisting of the platen or table and the
guides on which the table moves. This is the only
means of planing true, and we can hardly hope to see
any great change from the present plans for planing out
of wind. The fault is, it is so slow that continual expe-
riments are being made to do work on roller feeding
machines, only to be done on carriage machines.

This want of speed must be met in some way, and is
best remedied by using cross cylinders instead of travers-
ing heads. The Daniels' planing machine, as it is called
in America, was invented in 1802, by Bramah, and has
ever since held its place as the standard machine for
planing out of wind. It is no doubt best for some
special kinds of work, but is too frequently used ; three-
fourths of the planing performed on this machine
can be as well or better accomplished, and from two
to three times as fast, with a cross cylinder. The
Daniels' planer, from the nature of things, must be slow
in its action; the length of cutting edge that can be
brought to act in a given time is the exponent of a
planer's capacity, and when we consider that in machines
where the plane of rotation is parallel to the face of the
wood the length of edge that can be used is no more
than the depth of the cut, the wonder is that they per-
form so much.

A Daniels' planer with two cutters will, in ordinary
work, use only a half inch of edge when taking a cut of
one-fourth inch deep; a cross cylinder will, if it has

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 133

three cutters 20 inches long, represent five feet of edge,
or 120 times as much as the other machine. The work
performed of course is not in this ratio, but the actual
cutting capacity is.

The result in working is, that while a 24-inch cylinder
may plane 1000 feet of surface without sharpening the
cutters, a traverse head will not plane ten feet without
the edges being equally dull, but as they cut across the
wood it can be bruised off with edges that would not cut
at all if working parallel to the grain.

The secret of faster planing, we can safely conclude,
is not in continuous feed with rollers, which can never
make true work, but in increasing the capacity of car-
riage machines. With a traversing cutter-head the feed
is only from 10 to 15 feet a minute ; with a cylinder it can
be from 40 to 60 feet a minute on a good strong ma-
chine. By cutting two sides at once, which is entirely
practical on most kinds of lumber, and presuming that
the same time is required in running back, the relative
capacity is as one to five in favour of the cylinder, which
ought certainly to be satisfactory.

In the arrangement of a wood-working establishment
for purposes which require that a part of the planing be
true, and out of wind, there is seldom any absolute need
of a traverse planing machine, and unless there is such a
need for one, it is best to do without it.

The beating down action of the cylinder, often pre-
sented as an argument against the use of dimension
planers on thin lumber, is in practice not so serious a
matter as it is generally thought to be. A cylinder that
has its cutters sharp, and set at a proper angle, will
plane almost any kind of stuff without springing it or
beating it down.

134 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

Both in England and France they manage very well to
do all kinds of planing on dimension planers, not only
framing, but flexible stuff, which in America is always
planed on roller machines.

There is no question that in the United States too
great a share of the planing is on roller machines ; thfe
little time saved in planing, is generally lost in putting
the work together, especially in cabinet work, and similar
branches; and this tendency to roller feeding machines
is only because of their more speedy performance.

PARALLEL PLANERS.

This class includes nine-tenths of all the planers in use
in this country, including moulding machines, which do
not differ at all in principle from what we term planers,
except in capacity, and the arrangements required for
profile planing. We use the term parallel, because it
describes the function of the machines, which is to reduce
stuff to a uniform thickness, straightening it in some
degree to be sure, but not effectually. Such machines
are adapted to but one class of work, stuff that can le lent
or sprung into a straight line, as it passes through the
machine, and keeping this in view, it is easy to determine
what work should be done by parallel planing machines.
The presumption is that any kind of stuff that will bend
in passing through the machine can be afterwards sprung
straight in putting it together. Flooring, ceiling, mould-
ings,— in fact, every kind of stuff that is flexible enough,
can, and should be, planed on parallel planing machines,
which will plane two to four sides at the same time.

A four-side machine, as it is called, although it planes

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 135

all the sides of a piece, does not do so under the same
conditions on each side. Two of the sides are surface
planed, — that is, gauged from the surface that runs
against the gauges and the bed ; the other two are
planed parallel, gauged -from the opposite side to the one
being cut.

The lumber is guided by its rough surface before
coming in contact with the cutters, and will change the
position of its irregularities as it passes through the ma-
chine, but will retain them all. By this is meant that a
bend in a piece too stiff to be straightened by the rolls
and pressure bars, will not be in the same place after
planing as before, but advanced to a distance equal to
that between the rolls or pressure-bar and the cutters.
For this reason, among others, we cannot plane lumber
either square or straight on a parallel planer. The top
and bottom cylinder will work parallel, and the vertical
spindles may work parallel ; but as they cannot cut at
opposite points at the same time, the piece may change
its position between the horizontal and vertical cutters,
and be correspondingly out of square. Everyone knows
this in practice, and the discussion of it here is not
expected to impart any special information as to how
the operation may be changed or improved, but to assist
in explaining the general principles, which must be un-
derstood in order to dictate or suggest the construction
of machines, and also to determine proper plans of doing
work.

When a piece has two straight sides, and is to be
dressed all over, or one straight side, and be dressed
on two, the work can, of course, be sooner and better done
on a parallel machine ; so that when machines of both
kinds are at hand, as is usually the case, the lumber can,

136 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

after planing two sides on the carriage machines, go to
the parallel machines to be finished, effecting a saving of
time, and increasing the general capacity of the ma-
chinery. In furniture making, for instance, if there is a
lot of table-tops to plane, the best side can first be planed
on the traverse or carriage machine, and the stuff be
then run through the parallel machines, which saves time,
and produces true work.

Surfacing machines, as they are called, with an endless
chain bed, are commonly used for rough surfacing in
America, and if properly built in a durable manner, they
do very well for the rougher class of work. Two changes
are needed in them, which wood workmen ought to
demand, and when ordering such, machines make it a
specification. The bed and the lumber line should be
fixed, and the cylinder adjusted instead ; there is nothing
more annoying than to have the line of the stuff changing,
especially in surfacing, when the stuff should be run out
of the way by the feed ; besides, it is a most unmecha-
nical arrangement to move three-fourths of the working
parts of a machine in order to have the other fourth fixed.

The other point alluded to is the chains, which should
be stronger and better made. The running slats should
be chilled on the bottom side, and the fixed bars, or bed,
covered with tempered steel — not soft steel, but hard
steel. Without this there is no safety in operating these
machines, especially on heavy stuff that requires a strong
pressure to feed. Surfacing pine-boards gives no test of
one of these machines ; stiff timber framing, such as car
timber, put through one for a few hours is better.

In starting a new machine of this kind, great care is
needed for a day or two at the beginning ; the chain and
bearing bars have not then come to a fit, and are not

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 137

smooth and polished. The chain — or rather, the bed —
should be frequently oiled, or plumbago used with the oil,
which can be dropped between the slats while the chain
is in motion. Another fault that is often met with in
these machines, is for the chain bed to be narrower than
the cylinder and the rated capacity of the machine. This
is merely one of those subterfuges too often adopted to
convey an erroneous impression of the capacity of ma-
chines ; the Daniels' planer is, for instance, generally rated
as planing to the whole diameter of the cutter-head,
whereas, as anyone knows, such machines should have
their cutter-heads at least one-fourth larger in diameter
than their rated width.

Of what we have termed surface planers there need be
nothing said. With the exception of the scraping planer
of B. D. Whitney, there are no machines of this class in
general use. They relate, as the name indicates, to pre-
paring surfaces ; and with the progress that is at this time
being made in polishing machines for wood, we are not
likely to see a more extended use of planers of this kind,
that have rotary cutters.

ABEASIVE, OB POLISHING MACHINES.

Sand-paper is almost as old as the art of wood work-
ing and wood cutting ; yet while we have called in the
natural forces and employ machines to effect the cutting,
the polishing is mainly by hand. Power-polishing ma~
chines are, it is true, in common use for some purposes,
such as finishing spokes for wheels, and oval turned work
generally. Buffing wheels for chair stuff are also in
common use ; but the question is, why stop here ? espe-

138 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

cially as the application of these power-polishing appli-
ances has been mainly to cylindrical or irregular sur-
faces, and is successful ; why not to plane surfaces as well ?
The truth is, power-polishing has not been looked into
so closely or so carefully as it might have been, or
this hand-rubbing process would be exceptional. Abra-
sive cutting, we will term it, need not be confined
to smoothing merely ; it is unquestionably cheaper to
reduce wood with cutters when there is any consider^
able amount to be cut away ; but in smoothing off doors,
blinds, and other work that is framed with the stuff
at angles, this grinding process is the cheapest one for
flushing the shoulders, and finishing work after it is put
together. It combines the two operations of planing off
and sand-papering in one, and is at this time applied with
great success in many of the largest mills in various parts
of the country. It is regretted that the state of the art
just at this time is such that there is nothing to warrant
any more than a brief notice of it, to call attention to its
importance, and to the probable saving which it will effect.
There is no use in writing about undeveloped machinery in
America. It may do in Europe to give plans, drawings
or dissertations on a machine one or two years old ; but in
America the whole thing may pass away and be supplanted
with something else while the description is in the press.

The pneumatic fans now in general use remove the
dust, which has no doubt been one of the main causes why
polishing machines have not been more used.

Experiments thus far have given the best result by
moving the grinding surfaces in a plane parallel to the
surface of the wood, like a traversing planer.

Barker's machine, working on this plan, is at present
extensively and successfully used for cleaning off doors

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

139

and other joiner work, and in the preparation of plane
surfaces generally, either for painting or varnishing. The
endurance of the sand-paper, measured by the amount of
surface gone over, is about as five to one contrasted with
hand work, and when estimated by the wood cut away,
not less than as ten to one ; that is, a superficial foot of
paper will cut away ten times as much wood, if properly
used in a machine, as it would in ordinary hand use on
the same class of work. It is not assumed that the paper
will do this much more cutting under the same conditions,
and with equal care in both cases, but including the waste
of paper in hand use, which generally exceeds what is
utilized.

Every wood workshop, no matter what the business
may be, if the work is to be painted or varnished, can use
a set of buffing wheels to advantage. They do not cost
much, occupy but little room, and can be run by the
helpers at odd times when there is nothing else to do. It
will not cost one cent
a foot to bun7 lumber,
and even fence pickets
will look well enough
to pay for the expense.

To build a buffing
machine, construct a
frame about 4x6 feet
outside dimensions, of
framing from 4 to 5
inches square, as shown
in Figs. 55 and 56.
Three wheels are

better than two even if but two kinds of paper are re-
quired; the two wheels, with the same grade, if laid with

FIG. 55.

140

THE OPERATOR S HANDBOOK.

the kind of paper used for general purposes, will be worn,
as soon as the other, and it will save a large share
of the time needed to renew the paper. The wheels
should be from 30 to 40 inches in diameter, with a face
of 8 to 10 inches ; they may be made entirely of wood,
but an iron pulley with lagging is not only best but
cheapest. The frame should be open on the front, Fig. 56,
so as to allow of free access with crooked pieces, and be
convenient for the operator. The shaft should be not less
than 2 inches diameter, mounted as shown, to protect the
bearings and loose pulleys, as much as possible, from the
sand.

FIG. 56.

To prepare the wheels, procure pulleys of 30 to 36
inches diameter with 8 inches face, the rims heavy and
turned true inside and out, with two rows of screw-holes,
drilled j inch from the edge, 2 inches apart, to receive
IJ-inch No. 16 wood screws ; the holes well countersunk
on the inside. First put on a layer of lag pieces, either
2 or 4 inches wide, to match the screw-holes, making the
joints carefully, gluing and screwing each one as it is put
on ; turn the wheel off true in its place on the machine,

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 141

and put on a layer or two of felt or heavy cloth, to make
a cushion for the paper ; next prepare a strip of strong
canvas two inches wider than the face of the wheel, and
long enough to go around it, or half around it, as the case
may be, notch the edges, as at Fig, 57, so that they will
lap over the ends of the pulley,
to be fastened with tacks. After
putting on the canvas, a good plan
is to add a layer of plain manilla
paper without sand, and after it
dries, lay the sand-paper on the
outside, using thick strong glue;

let the wheels dry thoroughly before using them, and
when worn smooth, put a new layer on top of the former
one, and continue until the wheel becomes uneven and
irregular, then by drawing the tacks that hold the canvas,
and cutting the paper across opposite the joint, the whole
covering is stripped off, leaving the felt or cloth cushions
intact. The canvas can then be placed in water until the
sand-paper is soaked off, and again put on the wheel to
begin another set of coverings.

It should have been mentioned that the felt covering
can be nailed on with small copper tacks, and that in
applying the canvas, a strip of paper rubbed with beeswax
laid under the joints in the canvas will prevent adhesion
from any glue that may go through.

The whole body of the machine frame may be encased
to confine the dust, and exhausted by the induction fan,
hoods being placed at the back of the wheels to gather
the dust, as seen in Fig. 56.

In building a machine of this kind it is well to add a
common pulley at the end opposite the driving pulleys, to
operate sand or wax belts, for polishing perforated work or

142 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

such pieces as cannot be applied on the wheels ; this extra
pulley and an idle pulley set on the floor, with a few
canvas belts, comprises the arrangement, which is often
of great convenience, especially in chair and cabinet work.

JOBBING AND SHAPING MACHINES.

The term shaping, as applied in wood manufacture,
comprehends all work in irregular lines ; a better dis-
tinction would be to call all operations shaping, when the
stuff is fed by hand. This would include the many impro-
vised plans of doing special work, that cost so little, and
save so much, nearly all of which are performed by hand
feed.

Speaking of hand feed, it is apparent that in the great
race for automatic machinery, wood manufacturers have
gone far beyond the true limit in the use of power
feed, and have applied power feed in many cases when
the work could be fed to the cutters by hand, and
advantages gained both in the quality and cost of the
work.

To feed lumber to cutters at a uniform speed, regard-
less of the state of the edges, the grain of the wood, or
knots, is a most unnatural plan, and can only be con-
sidered as adapted to the coarser kinds of work ; besides,
to secure the smoothest and best work, the wood should
pass over the top of the cutter-heads, as in hand-feeding
machines, and not beneath them. This last proposition
would seem to be but a question of relative position
between the cutter-head and the wood, but it is some-
thing quite different. When material is passed over the
cutters, the amount cut away is usually gauged from the

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 143

side acted upon, arid the machine becomes a surface
planer instead of a parallel planer, as explained in an-
other place.

Hand feed, contrasted with power feed, must not there-
fore be regarded as meaning two ways of performing the
same thing, but as two classes of planing, involving
different principles. This distinction is, however, not the
most important one between a power-feeding and a hand-
feeding machine. The main difference practically is that
when arranged with feeding mechanism, a machine is
adapted only to some standard kind of work, such as
parallel planing, moulding, or grooving, will receive stuff
only within certain dimensions, and must be set and ad-
justed every time the dimensions of the lumber are
changed. Besides, in such machines the feed is uniform,
regardless of the varying amount that is cut away, the
nature of the wood, or the starting, which should be done
slowly.

A machine that is arranged to be fed by hand is the
opposite of all this ; it will receive stuff of any size, will
cut away any amount of wood, because the feed can be
graduated to suit, and is convertible into a general shaping
and jobbing machine, applicable to almost anything within
the whole range of wood cutting.

There is nothing about wood manufacture that needs
to be more carefully studied than this matter of machine
adaptation ; a successful business is always marked by
more or less original practice and an adaptation of means
to ends, that we may class under a general head of ways
and means of doing odd jobs.

Ten years ago it was most unusual to find a hand-
feeding machine in an American wood shop; whenever
the power-feeding machines failed to do what was re-

144 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

quired, the next resort was hand labour; but of late
years, from experience and necessity, there has been a
return to first principles, by the use of hand-feeding
machines for jobbing, and they are to be found at this
time in most large establishments.

A singular thing about their use, and one that argues
how little the principles of wood cutting are studied, is
that such machines have been sold mainly upon trial, and
only bought after they had demonstrated their utility.
Manufacturers had no confidence in a machine, the merit
of which was predicated upon theoretical grounds, and
appeared like a discarded thing of the past.

One reason of this is to be found in the common im-
pression that a hand-feeding machine requires a man's
time to run it, and that a power-feeding machine does
not, a mistake which is easily seen when considered ; in
fact, in many cases, hand feed requires no more attention,
and is the faster plan of the two, as bench sawing will
serve to illustrate.

Hand-feed machines have been mainly introduced under
the name of universal machines, and a common impression
exists that their value is due to a combination of several
functions, such as planing, boring, and sawing; but a
careful investigation of their use will prove their value to
be in the adaptability gained by dispensing with the
power-feeding mechanism.

A planing, moulding, and general jobbing machine,
arranged as in Fig. 58, with an overhung spindle to
receive various cutter-heads, having a compound table in
two parts with independent adjustment, is one of the
most useful of hand-feed machines. The tables a, a are
mounted on movable brackets, c, c, which are raised or
lowered to suit the diameter of the cutter-heads, and the

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

<fN> T/2& '"

145

amount of ,wood to be cut away. The rear table is ad-
justed to meet the face after it is planed, and varies from

FIG. 58.

the line of the front one, as the depth of the cut. The
figure merely conveys an idea of the general functions
of a machine which can be applied to a hundred uses,
and will generally have something to do in the way of
shaping, moulding, grooving, matching, raising panels,
rebating, or other work.

Such a machine corresponds very nearly to the original
plans for wood-planing machines ; a machine for moulding
and planing very nearly in this form was introduced in
America in 1835, but soon gave way to power-feeding
improvements, which were capable of performing all that
was needed at that day, and when modern work demands
hand-feed machines, it is hard to realize that we must go
back to the discarded machines of forty years ago.

Shaping machines, with two vertical spindles, have now
become standard machines in American shops ; and we
often hear the true remark that they " will do almost
anything." When we come 'to consider why they have

146 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

such a range of adaptation, it will be found substantially
in the principles that have been already pointed out —
hand fed, surface and gauging.

This machine, although comprehended in the British
patent of Bentham, 1793, and that of Boyd, 1822, was,
like many others, a long time in being developed, which
only proves that wood-machine improvement is not a ques-
tion of ingenuity in machine making but a sequence of
improvements in wood conversion.

Whenever a process is invented by the wood-machine
operators, we soon have machines to perform it, and there
is no greater mistake than to ascribe the progress of wood
manufacture to machine improvement ; it is just the oppo-
site, machine progress conies almost entirely from im-
provements in shop manipulation, and from the wood
workmen themselves. This matter is mentioned with a
view to directing the attention of operators to processes
instead of machines ; they must invent plans of perform-
ing work, after which it is easy to adapt machines to the
purpose. In the case of the jobbing machine alluded to,
for instance, if we have the premises or principles to begin
with, and know what kind of work can be done in a special
manner by a machine, it is then an easy matter to gene-
rate the necessary mechanism. To illustrate this matter
of processes further : if there is a set of lagging to make
for a drum or pulley ; in some shops it will be worked out
by hand with cove planes, involving no little time and
cost, besides making a poor job. In another shop, the
lags or staves will be run across the top of a circular saw,
and cut out true in a few minutes' time. This last is what
is meant by expedients to facilitate and perfect machine
work. A machine like the one shown at Fig. 58 is of
very simple construction ; but an ingenious workman who

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 147

understands its operation will soon prepare a set of guides,
gauges, and stops to do all kinds of jobs, even to working
curved lines ; and this outfit requires more ingenuity to
invent than the machine proper.

Since the introduction of emery wheels for grinding
cutters, the objections to those of solid steel are overcome,
and a solid steel cutter, hardened throughout, is sooner
ground in this way, than an iron one steel laid ; and when
it is considered that those of solid steel may be one-third
thinner and yet as rigid, it becomes an argument in their
favour. It is not recommended, however, that the extra
thickness be omitted when they are made of solid steel,
because shaping cutters are nearly always made too thin.
When there is the least spring in them they are liable
to break, snatch the piece from the workman, or, what
is worse, take his hand into the cutters with it.

When a number of these cutters are needed for shaping
machines, and when they are held by angular grooves at
the ends in the usual manner, it will be found a good plan
to procure several bars of the best cast steel, J x 1 in.,
J x Hin., A X IJ-in., A x lfin.,| x 2 in., and | x 2Jin.,
in such proportion as the nature of the work may require ;
cut these bars up into lengths of about 2 feet each, and
send them to a machine shop to have their edges jointed
and bevelled by a planing machine. This will cost but a
trifle, and ensure the uniform width of the cutters, without
which no machine can work well, as the spindle is bent to
meet any variation of width between the cutters forming
pairs.

The cutters can be cut from the bars, shaped and
tempered as needed. If there is a very irregular outline
to make, it saves time to drill holes, and break out a part
of the steel in the deepest places, or it can be cut out

L 2

148

THE OPEEATOES HANDBOOK.

FIG. 59.

at a forge fire without deranging the shape of the cutter,
if care is used. When there is much grinding and
it is to be done on emery wheels, harden the cutter
before it is ground ; but do not draw the temper until
after it is. shaped, it will then be clean and bright, to
show the shades of temper. If solid steel cutters of any
depth, say more than 3J- inches, are used, it is best to
slot them in the centre, and put a block between with
clamping screws, as in Fig. 59. It may not be needed
with ordinary work, but always where there
is danger of splinters raising, or pieces pull-
ing out, that may break solid steel cutters.
It is safest in shaping to keep the
material as much as possible between your
person and the cutters. This is the natural
position ; but when fulcrum pins are em-
ployed to hold the forms against the cutter-
heads, the operator can in many cases be
shielded behind the piece, or stand exposed
as he may choose.

In arranging shaping machines, always
drive them at as high a speed as the
spindles and bearings will stand. The
small diameter of the heads requires this to attain any-
thing like a standard speed with the cutting edges,
besides, it ensures greater safety to the operator; the
weight and inertia of a piece will often prevent it from
catching at a high speed, when it would be drawn in at
a slow one. A set of spindles properly fitted should run
at least 4500 revolutions a minute, which with heads 2^
inches diameter gives a cutting movement of less than
3000 feet a minute, much slower than with most other
machines.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 149

The step-bearings for these machines should be as long
and nearly as large in diameter as the top bearings, and
arranged to be flooded with oil. Small tempered steel
points will always give trouble, and have long ago, for all
kinds of machinery, been abandoned by the best makers.

Have no balance wheels on the spindles, they only add
useless weight on the steps, which have enough to carry
without them. The need for them on the spindles oi
shaping machines is about the same as on the grindstone
shaft, and they can be as well dispensed with in one case
as the other.

Set the countershaft 10 feet from the spindles when
there is room, or if nearer have the pulleys on it smaller
in proportion ; they should not in any case exceed five
times the diameters of those on the spindles, unless set
10 feet or more distant.

MORTISING.

It was remarked of jig saws that they should only be
used when no other machine could be employed for the
work. It will not be far wrong, and for similar reasons,
to say the same in reference to reciprocating mortising
machines.

In no other country except America have reciprocating
machines been applied to all kinds of mortising, and there
is nothing strange in the reaction we now see going on by
the return to rotary machines for car building and other
heavy work. It is hard to tell which deserves the greater
credit, the ingenuity and care that has kept the recipro-
cating machines in working order, or the forbearance that
suffers their jar, rattle, and derangement. All recipro-

150 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

eating machines, no matter what their character, if run at
a high speed are open to serious objections — from wear,
breaking, jar, and vibration — but when we add a kind
of duty that consists in heavy blows, like mortising, it
amounts to a culmination of these troubles, and explains
why the mortiser in a wood shop is generally out of
order and requires more repairs than all the rest of the
machines.

As before remarked, it is not our intention to treat of
the principles of machine construction further than to give
useful hints as to the care and operation of machines,
but there is nothing that will teach the care and opera-
tion of machines so well as to understand the principles
and the general theory of their action. It must also
be admitted that as engineers and machinists as a rule
know but little of wood- working machines, improvements
and changes must be suggested mainly by wood workmen
themselves.

We therefore suggest a thorough investigation of this
mortising question to see whether the reciprocating mor-
tising machine has not been applied to many kinds of
work which could have been as well or better done by
rotary machines. All the mortising in France, and the
greater part in England, is performed by rotary machines,
that cut clean true mortises without vibration or noise,
the question arises, suppose it takes a little longer to cut
a mortise, it is but a small part of the operation in making
up work, there are no breakdowns to hinder and derange
other things, the work is better done, the tools are not half
so expensive, and finally is it not worth a great deal to get
rid of the clashing and banging of a reciprocating machine,
as a matter of order and comfort about the works ? But

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 151

even this argument need not be used alone, for some car
builders from careful statistics prove that rotary mortising
machines effect a saving of time in the end, from the better
facilities they afford in presenting and handling long or
heavy lumber.

There is perhaps no question about the claims of recipro-
cating machines for light work, and for chisels to f in.
wide, or for pieces that are not too heavy to be fed to the
chisel. In these machines there is none of the very
objectional mechanism needed for a chisel bar feed, and
the machines are quite simple throughout. The recipro-
cating parts can be light and the crank shaft can be
placed in the base of the machine, to avoid overhead
connections and prevent jar upon a building.

Machines of this kind are suitable for joiner work,
cabinet work, and the lighter kinds of mortising generally,
except for chairs; all other mortising should be done on
rotary machines.

In making comparisons between reciprocating and
rotary mortising machines we have to consider — first, the
time required to perform the work ; second, the character
of the work when done ; third, the skill needed to perform
it ; fourth, cost of tools and repairs of machinery, including
detention by its derangement; or, briefly, time, quality,
skill, and repairs.

To first consider time, it must in the case of recipro-
cating machines include the cleaning out of mortises after
they are beat down, as it is termed, and unless the ope-
rator is specially skilled in the proper form of chisels,
this cleaning out often equals the mortising. With rotary
machines the mortises are clear, but require in most cases
squaring at the ends, a work hardly fair to balance against

152 THE OPEEATOE'S HANDBOOK.

the cleaning out in the other case, for it requires less
time and no more skill. If a mortise is made in soft wood
and without boring, it will be made in less time on a high
speed reciprocating machine, but if there has to be a hole
bored for starting, the mortise will be soonest made by a
rotary machine, which amounts practically to the former
proposition, that small mortises in light work are soonest
made by the reciprocating machines, and heavy work by
rotary machines. Presuming that rotary machines had
been as long and generally used in America as those with
reciprocal motion, the test of time would perhaps be in
their favour, taking the general range of work to judge
from.

The question of quality need hardly be considered, mor-
tises made by either plan are good enough.

In the matter of skill all is in favour of the rotary
machine ; those with reciprocating motion need not only
as much care and skill to keep up the cutting tools, but a
great deal more to keep up the machines, which are with
the best care usually out of order. They are besides
laborious to work, not only in the exertion needed to
feed, but the jarring communicated to the foot is dis-
agreeable, and often injurious in heavy work.

Of repairs, breakage, and detention, they are as the
difference between reciprocating and rotary motion which
expresses all that could be said.

In the selection of machines and the arrangement of
shops let this matter be carefully canvassed, and whenever
there are any doubts as to the plan of mortising to be
adopted decide in favour of rotary machines, for heavy
work at least. They will not only perform the work, but
do it well, and when not needed for mortising can be used

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 153

for boring, recessing, gaming, or other work at times when
a reciprocating machine would be idle. For the lighter
class of work when a movable table machine can be used,
the reciprocating machine is best, and will probably remain
so, but whenever the work requires a machine with chisel
bar feed, the case is different. Kotary machines are not
used in America at this time, except a large size for car
builders, but soon would be, if introduced, and many
improvements be added in adapting them to general
purposes. The length and position of the mortises being
gauged by stops in the rotary mortising machine, it is
possible that with some convenient system of gauges, no
laying out would be needed on any kind of work. This
is one of the advantages that has called the attention of'
car builders to these machines, and which is no small
matter when we consider both the time and the mistakes
saved ; a stop system is necessarily a check system at the
same time, and prevents mistakes. Speaking of there
being but few rotary mortising machines in use in this
country, we must except what are generally called chair
mortisers, a kind of rotary machine that deserves a more
extended use than it has at this time. The rule has been
to use these machines on round or crooked stuff which
could not be held firm enough to withstand the blows of
reciprocating machines ; they never fail to do all that is
required, and do it well, without much repairing or at-
tention. These machines are made in Ohio, and other
places in the West, in a simple, compact form, and at a
low price ; those made in New England for chairwork are
more complicated and slow to operate, having generally
vertical spindles, cutting downward, so that the chips
remain in the mortise, and in some cases the vibratory

154

motion has to be stopped when pieces are put into the
machine. The spindles of these machines should stand
either horizontally or vertically beneath the work, and
rim at a speed of 6000 to 7500 revolutions a minute,
the vibratory motion may be from 200 to 400 a minute ;
the cutters or bits should be made from Stubbs' steel,
drawn polished rods of the finest grade and used without
tempering. The spindles should be bored deep enough
to receive from 8 to 12 inches of the rods, so that there
will be no waste except the wear, and that the cutter may
be set out more or less, as the depth of the mortises may
require.

The bits should be held by a conical split thimble fitting
into the end of the spindle; set screws are unfit for the
purpose; they are often in the way when mortising on
angles, and are liable to catch in the clothing.

The chuck-end of a spindle is shown in section, Fig. 60,

FIG. 60.

a good device for any kind of rotary tools, where the
torsional strain is not too great to be sustained by friction
alone.

The chisels for reciprocating mortise machines have
much to do with their performance ; a chisel that is true
and of a form that loosens the chips and throws the greater
part of them out of the mortise, works easy, does not lift
the piece on the up-stroke, or jar the machine.

Chisels should be tapered slightly on their sides and
backs, and the only plan to get them true is to plane or

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

155

mill them from the shank after it is turned ; this is easily
done, and is the cheapest plan after the chuck or holder
has been prepared.

Fig. 61 is a chuck for planing or milling these chisels,
consisting of a revolving shell or holder, a, with a socket

FIG. 61.

to receive the chisel shank, and four stops, e. The base of
the chuck is planed to the taper needed on the sides and
back of the chisels, and arranged to fit on a planing or
milling machine. To set the chisel the clamp-piece e is
loosed, the chuck revolved one-fourth, and then again
fastened.

Mortising chisels should have a filing temper deep blue
or tinged with violet colour, and be made of the best steel
only. To sharpen them a thin emery wheel can be used
for the throat instead of files, in which case, however, the
temper should be no harder than described, or they will be
liable to break. The jaws or ribs at the sides of the chisels
are generally made too thin ; it is as well for all chisels
more than | in. wide to have lips one-fourth the width
of the chisel. Their purpose is to divide the chip into
three parts and loosen it in the mortise, and the central
part, or throat, aside from inconvenience of sharpening,
need be no wider than the jaws themselves.

156 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

TENONING.

Machines for cutting tenons are so well understood, and
have been so little changed in a long time, that they are
perhaps the most successfully built and operated of all
wood machines. Those with a fixed table and the cutting
movement given to the spindles are slowly coming into
use for the heavier class of work, especially when the
tenons are double. With this exception, the American
tenoning machines have remained about the same for
twenty years past. Improvements have been made in the
cutters, the machines have been improved in strength and
workmanship, and by the change from wood to iron fram-
ing, the manner of adjusting the heads has also been im-
proved and simplified ; but for light work an old machine
is as good as a new one, which can be said of but few other
machines. There are some things, notwithstanding these
facts, that need improvement, which any experienced wood
workman will appreciate when pointed out. The shoulders
of the tenon, for instance, are squared from opposite sides
of the piece by reversing it, when it is tenoned at both
ends, and it must be both parallel and straight to bring
true work ; it amounts to the same thing as using the try
square on two different sides of a piece in scribing shoulders,
which would not be thought of by a bench workman. For
this we have the remedy of tenoning both ends at the same
time, which not only evades this trouble of squaring the
shoulders, but saves a great share of the time and labour-
It also ensures accurate and uniform lengths between
shoulders, a matter of no small importance in tenoning.
This plan of tenoning both ends at one operation has gone
into practice in Chicago, where it has met with great sue-

157

cess, and deserves to be generally adopted in door and
sash work.

Some of the joiners' shops in Sweden and Norway employ
the same plan, and machines of this kind have been made
in England.

Another improvement is needed in the carriages. They
are made to run on slides, and to move them backward
and forward is the main labour in operating a tenoning
machine ; it is not only hard work, but consumes time, and
hinders the operator from holding the stuff, which is nearly
all he can perform with his hands. The carriages should
in all cases move on rollers, no matter how small the ma-
chine ; it is of course more important for heavy work, and
on the larger machines, but in any case it allows the
operator to feel the action of the cutters more sensitively,
and saves time. The argument has been in this matter,
that a carriage, if mounted on rollers, could not be kept
true and square. Without discussing the subject from a
mechanical point of view, it is suggested that a maker who
cannot produce a tenoning carriage to move true and
square on rollers had better leave the work to be done by
those who can. The old wooden carriages are so light,
and slide so easily in doing light work, that they do very
well without roller bearings ; but, as now made of iron, a
carriage strong enough to stand the rough use to which
it is subjected, is too heavy to move on slides. Carriages
when mounted in this way start heavy and bring the wood
in contact with the cutters in an abrupt manner that
shivers the corners in starting. The pressure needed to
move the carriage is so great that the cutting is not felt,
and, as remarked before, the main work in operating is to
move the carriage backward and forward.

158 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

Tenoning cutters, with all others that act transversely to
the grain, should be as thin, and stand at an angle as acute
as possible. The tenons depend for accuracy upon the
edges being straight and true, which requires precision
in grinding and sharpening them, or rather in jointing
them, which should be done when on the head at first, and
then a gauge prepared that will indicate the true angle
for the edges: most makers send out such gauges with
their machines, but they nearly always need a readjust-
ment by the operator, who can test them by careful
experiments which the machinist has not facilities to do.

WOOD TURNING.

The * Turners' Companion,' with other treatises on the
subject, generally relate to fancy engine turning for orna-
mentation, and are intended mainly for amateurs, or at
least do not apply to what is needed in a wood-working
establishment.

What is said here will therefore be directed to other
matters that are of more interest to the practical workman,
and while there may not be much said that is new, it will
it is hoped contain suggestions that will be of use.

Turning is an extensive and important branch of wood
work, one that has to be performed in nearly all wood
shops, and, more or less, on all kinds of work. Every
wood workman should learn plain hand turning ; not
elaborate pieces, but such things as are met with in gene-
ral wood work. In joinery, circular work such as circle
top frames, round corners, and columns, have to be turned.
In cabinet work, although turning is not so great a share
as in former times, it is yet a large part of the whole.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 159

Pattern makers learn to turn from necessity, and the
time spent in this way is more than compensated in the
aid it gives in learning bench work.

The art of turning in wood and ivory has always been
considered an amusement, and there is nothing in the whole
range of industrial processes more fascinating than to shape
pieces in a lathe ; some of the pleasure is to be ascribed to
the fact that turning is performed without much exertion,
and consists rather in directing the tools than propelling
them ; yet the rapid change of form that is made at will,
and the nice skill needed in some of the finer varieties of
work, makes it a most agreeable labour, even to those
who are continually engaged at it. The hand lathe is
chief among turning machines ; for centuries it was ap-
plied to all manner of turning in both wood and iron, with-
out any attempt to guide or direct the cutting tools by
mechanism, but of late years, from a turning lathe we have
changed to turning " machinery," and so many auxiliaries
have been added, that the lathe can now be considered but
little more than a device to rotate the piece. In wood
turning, all the coarser kinds, and even fine work when
there are many pieces of one kind to be made, are machine
turned. Nothing connected with wood cutting has been
followed more persistently than automatic turning, and
nothing has met with more failure. A strange fact run-
ning through all experiments made thus far, is that they
have been successful or unsuccessful as they have cor-
responded to the action of hand tools. Except in America
but little has been attempted in automatic turning machi-
nery ; in the older countries labour is too cheap, and less
turning in wood is done.

Hand lathes for wood turning require to be made with
more care in some respects than any machine used in

160 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

wood work ; they should run true and steady, as a matter
of convenience, and of necessity as well, for no turner
can do good work on a bad lathe, or one that is not
in order. The cones should be of cherry or mahogany,
the wood thoroughly seasoned, and laid up so that the
joints will run true. Nothing looks worse, nor more un-
workmanlike, than to have the joints in a set of lathe cones
to run in a zigzag course ; besides, it is just as easy to
have them true, by planing up and sawing out the different
layers, and then gluing them up on the spindle, using the
small cone, which should be of iron, and screwed on the
spindle, to clamp them. The cones should be for a com-
mon hand lathe five in number, rising from 4 to 12 inches
diameter. The spindle should have long bearings of hard
brass at each end. There is something strange in the fact
that while bearings for other spindles are made from three
to four diameters in length, lathe bearings are as a rule
but half as long ; and still more strange that lathe spindles
should have a small point bearing at the end any more
than the spindles of other machines. The end thrust is
great, it is true, and must be resisted, but in other cases
a little point would not be thought of; a series of shallow
collars has been determined in engineering practice gene-
rally, as the best means of resisting end thrusts, and why
not in a lathe ?

Without going into construction of lathes any further
than to offer suggestions to those who purchase and use
them, we will say, that if turners would note the weak
points and faults in hand lathes, and dictate their con-
struction in such particulars as need improvement, we
should soon have them more perfect.

The shear, or lathe frame, which is seldom furnished
with the lathe, can be made of wood, and is for some pur-

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 161

poses better than if made of iron. An iron shear is cold
in winter, generally too narrow on top, and injures the
tools, which are sure to come in contact with it. For
pattern work, and the heaviest kind of wood turning, an
iron shear is for some reasons best, because of keeping the
heads in line, and the weight preventing vibration from
pieces that are out of balance.

A wooden shear should be made of dry pine, the sides
not less than 5 x 10 inches — 6 x 12 is better — the top
covered with an inch board of ash or oak, fastened with
wood screws, so that it can be taken off and replaced when
worn ; this preserves the shear frame, and makes a hard
surface for the heads to slide upon. Lathe shears should
in setting be braced, or blocked and bolted, to a wall
whenever practicable, especially when there is more than
one lathe to stand on a single frame, otherwise one lathe
will disturb another in starting rough stuff that is out of
balance.

A wood turner needs a good and complete set of tools.
It is not pretended that there is anything new in the sug-
gestion, but there never was one more needed ; there is
no accounting for the want and the imperfection of tools
that can be seen with nine out of every ten wood lathes
in use. A man may at bench work manage to get along
without tools of the best temper, or those properly ground,
but no one can turn with satisfaction, or with success,
without both, because turning depends upon a sharp keen
edge, and in most cases a true bevel, which forms a rest
for the edge of the tools. The finest steel only will hold an
edge, and even then not on all kinds of wood, so that scrap-
ing tools have to be resorted to. Except for light work, the
scraping tools — cutting off, or square tools — and nearly all
except flat chisels and gouges, can be made from bars of

162 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

steel, and used without wooden handles ; if made from ^-in.
or j-in. square bar, and the sharp corners ground off, they
are convenient for pattern turning at least, and much
safer than with detachable handles. Tools made in this
way should be longer than handled tools; for pattern
turning they may be from 16 to 20 inches long without
inconvenience. For all kinds of light turning, those with
handles are of course more convenient.

Tool handles and other fancy articles should be polished
in the lathe before taking them out, by first putting on a
light coat of linseed oil with a brush, and then using
shellac varnish, applied with a woollen rubber, made by
doubling heavy cloth to make two to four thicknesses,
and, when doubled, about 3 inches square. Apply the
varnish to the cloth, then hold it on the work, pressing
hard enough to heat and dry it ; the varnish must be thick,
and the operation, to be successful, done rapidly.

It may be said that polished work, tool handles, for
instance, cannot be performed by automatic lathes ; such
work cannot be made smooth enough to receive the polish,
and the polishing if required would have to be. at any rate
a second and independent process.

No rules of much value can be given to aid a beginner
in learning to turn, for turning is an operation consisting
almost entirely in hand skill. One thing, however, may
be suggested — cut, instead of scrape, with the tools. The
beginner at once discovers that his tools will not catch
when scraping or dragging on the wood and adopts scraping
from a sense of danger ; he may at the same time discover
that if used in this way the edges of the tools are at once
destroyed, but little is accomplished, and the surfaces
produced are very rough.

Machine or automatic lathes, as they may be called,

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 163

consist of four classes ; — First, gauge lathes, with a slide
rest and tool carriage, after the manner of an engine lathe,
for metal working. Second, lathes with rotary cutting
tools, that have a compound motion of the wood and the
cutters, both revolving. Third, excentric lathes for turn-
ing elliptical or other irregular forms. Fourth, chuck
lathes, hollow mandrils, or rod machines.

The gauge lathe was invented by Bentham, described
in his patent of 1793, and has possibly, under some
modification, been in use ever since. What is known
as the Alcott slide, to be used in connection with an ordi-
nary hand lathe, is but a modification of this machine.
The principle of operation consists in a following rest, in
front of which is a roughing gouge, to reduce the piece so
that it will fit the rest ; behind this rest other tools follow,
one to three in number, as the work may require, the
rest supporting the piece. The following or finishing tools
are generally mounted upon pivoted falls, which slide on
patterns, that raise and lower the cutters to give the
required shape to the piece. This produces duplicate
pieces very rapidly, but if the profile is in any degree
irregular the work is too rough for any but the rougher
uses. By tumbling the pieces in a cylinder with leather
scrap, after they are thoroughly dried they can be made
smooth enough for painted work, but not to varnish or
polish. Gauge lathes have been helped out of this diffi-
culty of making rough work by shearing knives, that
come down diagonally behind, and follow the rest, cutting
off a light shaving with a thin tangental edge, correspond-
ing to the action of a hand chisel that leaves the piece
true and smooth. This device has been extensively and
successfully used, and manufacturers need have no fear in
adopting it for any work to which it can be applied.

u 2

164 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

If a gauge lathe is to be used, have a good one. It was
a long time being discovered that a gauge lathe for wood
turning required to be as accurately, and even more care-
fully made, than an engine lathe for machine fitting. Such
lathes require to be made in the most thorough manner,
and will cost a large price from any responsible maker.
If the amount and character of the work does not justify
the outlay for a first-class gauge lathe, it is better to do
the work by hand, or with an Alcott slide, than to buy a
cheap one.

The spindle bearings of gauge lathes should be made of
the hardest brass, set into accurately planed seats, so that
they may be adjusted or renewed without trouble. Centres
project 6 to 10 inches from the ends of the spindles, have
sharp points, and the head and tail points must come
together precisely, and keep there, that is, the lathe must
keep in line ; this must be the test of a gauge lathe, and
is one that would condemn nine-tenths of all the engine
lathes in use.

Of second class, of lathes with rotary tools are but
little used ; the cutters and the wood both running in
circles, and cutting intermittently, make rough work ; it
is difficult enough to produce smooth surfaces with either
the wood tangental to the cutters, or the cutters tangental
to the wood, without having two circles to meet. There
has been a limited use of these lathes for turning hubs
and other coarse work, but nothing to merit a further
notice here. We suggest to wood manufacturers that
whenever they find this compound rotary motion of both
the tools and the piece in a machine to do cylindrical
turning, to buy some other ; it is a subversion of the true
principles of wood cutting, and as such should be em-
ployed only when it is unavoidable.

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 165

Excentric lathes for oval turning are among those
machines which require special knowledge to manage.
The Blanchard lathe, if driven at its utmost speed, may
turn from five to seven hundred small spokes a day, the
surface so rough that the grinding and polishing becomes
a more important matter than the turning. We do not
want to find fault with a machine so long and so success-
fully used as the Blanchard lathe, but will suggest that
if instead of turning six hundred spokes on one machine,
the same man were to turn three hundred each, on two
machines, and turn them smooth, a great gain would be
made. The investment in machinery would be something
more, but this is a small matter, to be rated as the interest
on the money, and is balanced by a small daily gain in
either the quantity or quality of the work performed.
What we contend for is, that these excentric lathes should
be better made, do their work more smoothly, and if neces-
sary keep up the quantity turned by increasing the number
of machines. In excentric turning the rough character of
the work is due in a great measure to the cutting being
done across the grain, and to the very inferior quality of
the cutters used; these are, as a rule, made from saw-
plate steel, tempered to a blue only, so as to be filed, and
the edges break or bend as soon as they touch any bark
or grit. The plan of filing answers for rough work, and
plate-steel is good enough for cutters, but it should be of
the finest quality, carefully tempered, and the inside
which forms the edge polished.

The best lathes for excentric turning are those which
have the reciprocating movement in the cutter-head, a
principle which is followed in all cases except for spoke
turning, and in what is called the Handle Lathe. The
fact is that no durable and substantial machine can be

166 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

made that has its spindles and driving gearing vibrating
on a swing frame. The lathes used for turning gun
stocks in the armories are the best in use, and are in all
cases made with the spindles to run in fixed supports.
Spoke-turning machines that have their cutters arranged
to act lengthwise the piece, parallel to the fibre, do
smoother work, and admit of several pieces being worked
at the same time. This plan is one employed in machines
of foreign manufacture, and has certainly been successful
enough to prevent the introduction of the Blanchard lathe
in Europe. It is therefore suggested to manufacturers
that in fitting up new works, or in increasing old ones,
that this subject of elliptical turning be more carefully
considered, and investigations made as to the relative cost
of grinding and polishing, compared with the turning, also
the cost of turning by different machines.

The cost of turning is the wages paid for operating the
machine, with its wear and repairs added ; for polishing,
it is the cost of the labour, the wear of belts, cost of glue,
sand, and the time of laying the belts. A little gained by
fast turning may be easily lost in finishing, and it is quite
unfair to rate the capacity of a machine by the number of
pieces that may be turned out, regardless of the manner
in which it is done.

With handle lathes the cutting is generally done in
saws, which stand the bark better than cutters, and do
not spring the piece so much. A cutter-head with six or
eight cutters to do the same amount of work as a saw that
has from 24 to 32 teeth, must displace four times as much
wood at each cut, and the shock and strain upon the piece
is nearly in the same proportion. The straighter kinds
of handles, such as sledge, pick, hammer, and hatchet
handles, can be turned much faster with cutters than with

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

167

saws, because of the edges being broader, and the feed
proportionately faster; but axe handles, or any handle
that has short turns or angles, can be best turned with,
saws. The true plan is to have each lathe supplied with
both saws and cutter-heads, so that they can be changed
to suit the kind of work being done.

Chuck turning relates to parallel rods like dowel pins,
chair braces, or fence pickets. As machines, chuck lathes
are simple, efficient and labour-saving, cost but little, and
should be used whenever there is anything for them to
do. The principle of their operation is the same as the
hand gauging tool shown at Fig. 62, a little device that
should be among the tools on every hand lathe.

FIG. 62.

This gauge tool is used in turning any kind of parallel
stuff, dowel pins, wooden screws, gauge stems, in fact any-
thing that is in whole or in part straight. Cabinet turning,
such as nulling, cottage spindles, or other pieces that are
turned straight before being moulded, can be sized much
quicker and more accurately with a gauge tool than with
chisels.

168 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

The tools are made of cast iron, are inexpensive, and
easy to operate. One stirrup and cutter will do for several
sizes by exchanging. The only fitting in making gauge
tools is to bore them to the size wanted and cut away
the throat. In using them the handle runs on the rest,
and should be held down firmly ; some of the first experi-
ments may be failures, until there is some skill acquired
in setting the cutter. The tool will either go perfectly
straight, which is its natural and most easy course, or it
will not go at all. Although but little known they have
been in successful use for years, and are especially needed
in turning the stems of wooden screws, and other pieces
that have to be accurate.

PATENTS ON WOOD MACHINES.

It is thought that, among other things, a short article
on the subject of inventions and patents would not only
be of interest, but probably of use. All engaged in wood
manufacture — proprietors, managers, and workmen — are
at some time either afflicted with a patent mania them-
selves, or brought in contact with it in others, and the
little that has been written or is known of the history of
wood machinery, together with its recent rapid develop-
ment, has been not only favourable to invention, but also
to deception and mistakes. If anyone before investing
in, or becoming interested in, inventions, or in applying
for patents on wood-working machinery, would look over
the statistics of the past, and see how little has been
derived from invention, or even from the monopoly of
manufacture, by patents on wood machines, he would need
no other caution to deter him from what will, in nine cases

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 169

out of ten, result in a loss of time and money. Even in
the case of the few master patents, on principles, we use
the word advisedly, such as Wood worth's patent on planers,
or Blanchard's patent on excentric lathes, but little, if any-
thing, has been gained to the patentees. The greater
share of the revenue was consumed in litigation, to defend
against infringement, a consequence that is natural, and
will always occur in any attempt to monopolize the
manufacture of a machine after it becomes popular. There
is something about public sentiment in the United States
that rebels against patent monopoly and favours attempts
to evade patents, which renders it difficult to introduce
patents, and still more difficult to defend them against
infringement if they are really useful.

Leaving out the considerations already named, which
ought to be quite enough to save at least the greater
share of what is each year lost in wood machinery
patents, there is one other too often lost sight of, the
difficulty and expense of ascertaining the novelty of im-
provements. Foreign patents or foreign practice become
legal evidence against the novelty of inventions in our
courts, and it is only in late years that we have had facili-
ties for acquiring and using such evidence or acquainting
ourselves with what exists and what has been done abroad.
Our Patent Office, with all the good features of its system,
and the examination it gives to cases, does not dare to
give any validity to a patent, or to confer a single right
that is indefeasible or not conditional ; it simply gives
the inventor power to prosecute others for infringement,
and actual damages on condition of being the true and
original inventor, as against his opponent and everyone
else. The writer has spent no little time and money in
securing patents on wood-cutting machines, most of which

170 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

he has found to be anticipated by other and older in-
ventors, and without having in any case realized as much
as the same amount of effort would have earned if it had
been applied to other business.

What it is intended to notice here, is not so much the
policy of patenting improvements, as the founding of busi-
ness schemes with patent monopoly as a base, or con-
stituting a part of the capital. Any failure of a manu-
facturing business is felt far and wide, both as a loss
of capital and an -injury to the reputation of the branch of
work io wliich it belongs ; and in establishing a business,
as in building a house, there is required a good founda-
tion, which in manufacturing should be a demand and
market for the product, skill to produce it at as low or a
lower cost than others, and capital to do the business upon.

The estimates of a market should be based upon a care-
ful review of existing facts and probable future changes,
how far the articles to be made are a luxury or a staple of
necessity, and how others have or are succeeding in the
same line.

In the matter of skill, depend upon mechanical ability,
experience, shop system, and good manipulation ; if patents
are to be a consideration, balance them against some other
intangible consideration, but not against money, credit,
machines, or material. If a patent earns anything, it is
easy to set it off to a separate account, but never safe to
use the money until it is earned, which is done when a
patent represents manufacturing capital.

In the matter of capital, no matter what the amount,
let it consist in cash or actual assets ; there was a time in
wood manufacturing when it was comparatively sale to
borrow money for one or two years and invest it in lumber

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 171

and machines, but that time has gone by ; competition is
now so great, and our establishments have grown so large,
that the manufacturer with a small or a borrowed capital
has but little chance against the one who has a large
capital and owns it. In making special and new articles
of manufacture, or in districts not connected with our
great cities by rail or water communication, or when the
business is carried on to meet a local demand, these rules
may not apply : they are safe premises, however, to reason
from in starting a new business.

PUKCHASING MACHINERY.

There is no knowledge more important to a wood
manufacturer than what kind of machines he should
purchase to be used in his business.

Operators generally understand the subject better than
proprietors, and machines are usually bought upon their
judgment and advice ; only so far, however, as a choice
between the machines of different makers, for it is very
seldom that they can get just what is wanted, no matter
how well they may understand what is needed for the
work.

Wood machines are made in America at this time
like boots and shoes, or shovels and hatchets. You do
not, as in most other countries, prepare a specification of
what you want, as to capacity, belt power, adjustments,
and so on, but must take what is made for the general
market. That this is not right need not be argued, and
that it is as much the fault of the purchaser as it is of
the maker is also true.

172 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

Purchasers are too apt to barter and beat down the
price to the lowest point, and then go to another maker to
see if he will furnish machines for less, just as though it
was a circular saw, a roll of belting, or a barrel of oil that
was wanted. This not only degrades the business of
machine manufacturing, and provokes competition and
bad work, but it leads to a state of affairs that allows
almost anyone to engage in machine making without the
engineering knowledge and skill that is needed.

This is not the way to construct and sell machines that
will earn the most money. They should, whenever prac-
ticable, be specially adapted to the work to be performed,
by makers who not only understand the nature of the work,
and the principles of machines, but have proper facilities
for designing and modifying them, without enhancing their
cost. In most cases a man who is to run a machine upon
some special work knows how it should be made and
arranged for that work, and he should have it arranged
accordingly. If a machinist applied to has not the skill
or the engineering knowledge to modify the machine, go
to one who has such knowledge, and the chances are that
what is saved at such a shop by skill and system will fully
make up for the extra cost of the changes needed. This
commercial system of machine manufacture has, among
other troubles, led to a kind of conditional sale system ;
machines are bought, and what is stranger, furnished,
on trial. The purchaser is afraid to trust his own judg-
ment, the maker is not to be depended upon, the manager
or the operators have no choice except between the stereo-
type machines in the market, and the builder is allowed
to send a machine on trial, or rather, to send one with
a guarantee of its working.

The way to reform this, which all must admit as a

.^

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK. 173

wrong system, is for the machine operators to educate
themselves in the principles of constructing as well as
operating wood machinery ; to study the theory of the
action of cutting edges, the proportion and composition
of bearings, the diameter and length of spindles, the
size of pulleys and width of belts, speeds, and everything
pertaining to wood manufacture.

They must not depend upon machinists, who as a rule
know nothing of wood work, to do this. It is altogether
a different thing from making lathes and planer drills
for metal work; tools which machinists understand and
continually use in their own business. Wood machines
are not only peculiar and difficult to build, but are also
peculiar to operate. A machinist is expected to run a
lathe or planer, to drill, or do vice work, but on the con-
trary it is only a few wood workmen who can run the
different machines found in a wood shop, so that it is
unreasonable to expect a machinist, without specifications,
to fill an order satisfactorily for a machine which even the
operator may not understand.

In ordering machines, therefore, take time to investigate
their adaptation to what you want to do ; if the work is
of a regular character the public reputation of a machine
may be trusted, but it is due to the dignity of any shop to
at least attempt to improve their manipulation by modi-
fying machines whenever useful improvement suggests
itself. In the matter of shafting, belts, and steam power,
we have already offered suggestions to aid in their selec-
tion.

174 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

SUPPLYING MATERIAL.

"A penny saved is a penny earned," is a maxim as
old as it is true; applied to the purchase of lumber and
wood supply for an establishment it means that a dollar
saved in the manner of supplying material, can be added
to the profits account.

As to purchasing sawed lumber, it is only a commercial
question of quality and value, but other plans of procuring
material, without its passing through what is called the
lumber market, are open to some suggestions for those
who are within reach of timber.

A great many, in manufacturing articles from wood,
never think of anything but to purchase sawed lumber
and recut it, often into small pieces, when they had just
as well cut their stuff from round timber, saving thereby
a great share of the cost, and at the same time securing
better material. As a rule, 200 feet of lumber will cost
as much as one cord of timber ; a cord of timber, 128
cubic feet, is as a solid equal to something over 1500
feet of sawed stuff board measure ; allowing one-half lor
saw-kerf and waste, it would make when sawed 766 feet
of lumber. A good sawyer, with an efficient machine, will
cut up four cords of logs 8 feet long into framing pieces or
turning stuff in a day ; the waste, after furnishing fuel to
drive the saw, is generally \vorth enough to pay for the
sawing, and something over; as one-half is allowed for
waste it should certainly make a cord of firewood, wrorth
as much as a cord of round timber.

This would give 766 feet of prepared stuff at the same
price that would have been paid for 200 feet of lumber,
with the difference that what has been cut from timber

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 175

is cut to dimensions, while the other would be in planks
or boards, and subject to a much greater waste in re-
working than the stuff sawed by hand.

Leaving all nice calculations out, we may safely assume
that when a cord of round or split timber costs as much
as 200 feet of lumber, the stuff saved from the timber
will, when cut out, not cost more than one-half as much
as an equal quantity of merchantable lumber, and that if
any considerable part of the lumber used in a manufac-
turing establishment could be produced in this way, it
alone would make a large profit.

As to the question of quality, or worth, which is the
same thing ; timber that is cut to be sold by the cord
is usually of smaller size and a younger growth than what
is taken for saw-mill logs, and is for that reason sounder
and brighter than the older growth. If it is split before
sawing it must be reasonably straight grained, and is
sawed nearly with the grain ; being in short lengths of
8 feet or less, the lumber in any case is much straighter
in grain than if it had been cut at a regular lumber mill,
where .the logs would have been twice as long. In other
words, the lumber from a crooked tree is straight or cross
grained as the lengths into which it is cross-cat before
slitting.

It might be said in reference to this system, that round
timber cannot be obtained; however, ther-e are but few
places in the United States, except in large cities, or the
prairie countries, where such timber cannot be procured,
by simply letting its want be known. The farmers during
the winter are glad to haul in, or deliver such stuff on the
railways, canals, or rivers, and only too glad to avoid the
saw-log business, which is by no means a favourite one.
Many of the largest wood manufacturing establishments

176

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

have already adopted this system, so far as they can, and
have continued it successfully for years ; it is not expected,
of course, that we are giving them information, but a
great many never think of it.

FIG. 64.

For this kind of sawing there
is needed a saw framed and
arranged as in Figs. 63 and
64, the general dimensions as
follows ; —

Length of main frame, 14 feet.
Height of main frame, 24 inches.
Length of running board or table.

13 feet.

Length of bearing rails, 16 feet.
Diameter of saw, 36 to 40 inches.
Diameter of mandril, 2^ inches.
Length of mandril, 42 inches.
Size of pulley, 12 inches diameter,

8 inches face.
Speed of the saw, 1200 revolutions per

minute.
Power required from 10 H.P.

The table is merely a hard
wood board, interposed between
the timber and the rollers, split
throughout its length, but held
together by the cross cleats on

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 177

the ends ; the angle irons seen on the end view, at a, are used
to gauge the stuff; other plans can be used, which may be
more convenient ; one is to have swinging gauges fixed
to the main frame outside the moving table, so that they
will swing round out of the way when the timber is moved ;
another is to have lines scored on the table, indicating
inches or smaller divisions if needed. In sizing stuff that
is to be squared after it is cut into deals, a number of
pieces can be piled on top of each other and cut at one
time to save time and walking. Six cords of timber have
been cut into pieces for hoe handles, rake handles, and
general turning lumber, in a day, on one of these saws.

Table legs, bedstead and chair stuff, with the greater
share of the lumber used in furniture manufacture, can be
prepared in this way, either to size, or in deals to be recut
after seasoning.

HINTS ON BENCH WORK.

It requires some temerity to write about bench opera-
tions in wood work ; a hand art almost as old as the world,
or at least as old as civilization, ought by this time to be
perfect, and it would, no doubt, have been perfected long
ago, so far as hand skill is concerned, if it were not con-
tinually modified by the influence of machines, so that
bench work, like other things, must progress and improve.

If a reason was wanting, there is another which would
serve for the introduction of this article — it will instruct
apprentices. In most trades there are inferior branches
with which an apprentice may begin, and then become
gradually skilled in his art by changing to those more
difficult as he learns, but this is hardly true of bench work

N

178 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

in wood manufacture. An apprentice may clean the
shop, rip out stuff, sand-paper, and knock about at the
beginning, but as soon as he goes to the bench he has at
once to begin some of the most difficult things that he will
ever have to perform, which are to dress up stuff, make
joints, and keep a set of planes in order. It is therefore
expected that this part of the book will not be without
its use, although somewhat disconnected from the general
subject of wood-machine operation.

BENCHES FOB WOOD WORK.

Long custom has established certain forms of benches
for different kinds of wood work, and while almost any kind
of wood work may be done on almost any kind of bench,
there are in this, as in most old customs, some good reasons
at the bottom. The cabinet maker wants a tail-screw,
the carriage maker a standing or high vice, and the pattern
maker the back tray, while the carpenter does not care
much what his bench may be, so long as it is long and
wide.

Since the general introduction of machinery to do the
planing, benches have been made higher than when work
was done by hand, an improvement that prevents stooping.
Thirty-two inches high was once a limit, but now benches
36 inches high are often more convenient than if lower.
In any case they should be as high as possible.

The main part of a bench is the top, and next the vice.
For carriage work the vice is the main part; there is,
however, no harm in having both as good as can be. The
tops should never be made of a whole plank ; they are
much better if made of scantling, bored at intervals of

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 179

12 inches for dowels, and the whole drawn together with
|-inch bolts. One of the bolts can pass through the
standing leg of the vice, which should always be gained
into and come flush with the top of the bench, and not
mortised into the under side, in this way it generally
splits the top ; besides, the top will not stand the wear
opposite the vice jaw. When a tail-screw is to be used
the top cannot well be made throughout of scantling ; a
wider piece will be needed on the front side, to frame the
tail-vice in, but it should be as narrow as possible, and
the rest of the top in pieces. Always make benches large
enough, the constant tendency is to have them too small,
especially with cabinet makers, who often own their
benches, and move them like a tool chest to wherever
they are engaged ; this has no doubt been a reason for
the small size that cabinet makers' benches are generally
made. A tray at the back is the common plan, and at
the risk of violating the maxim laid down at the beginning
about old custom, we must say it is wrong. No one wants
to hunt small tools out of a tray ; it is never deep
enough for the stuff on the bench to clear plane
handles, is always full of dirt and shavings, and at best
can be considered as nothing more than a plan to save
width. If the stuff being worked is wide enough to cover
a tray, the tray is of no use ; if it is not, there is still
no need of the tray, six inches more of width added to
the top will be found more convenient for any kind of
work, from carving to wagon making. A flush top is
easier kept clean and clear, but if it must be divided into
a working top and a tool compartment, raise the tool plat-
form above the bench, either by laying on a pine board
S8 inches wide, or, if the bench is less than 30 inches wide,
raise this board up 6 jnches from the bench, like a shelf,

N 2

180 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

leaving room so that planes will go under it, or, what is
better, leave a place clear at the front for planes. This
will be found more convenient for small tools, and more
orderly than a tray. A cabinet bench, to be convenient,
should not be less than 30 inches wide, and 8 feet long,
the centre of the main vice 20 inches from the end, the
top 3 J- to 4 inches thick for the whole of its width, for it
nearly always costs more to fit up a backboard than the
extra lumber is worth, if the tops are made of uniform
thickness throughout: these sizes are nearly twice as
large as such benches are usually made. The amount
that a man may earn on a bench does not often lead to
affluence, even when all conditions are favourable, and
to render this amount as large as possible, after skill,
the next most important thing is order and good tools,
neither of which can be had without bench room.

A vice jaw for wood work, except wagon and carriage
making, should be from 8 to 10 inches wide, 3 to 3J inches
thick, of seasoned hard wood, set at a sufficient angle to
prevent it from twisting when long pieces are set in verti-
cally. The standing leg should be the same size, and, as
before said, gained into the top depth, not full depth, but
from 1J to 2 in.

Benches for pattern making require to be wider, longer,
and higher. A good plan for pattern benches is to make
them continuous along one or more sides of the building.
The tops need not be more than 3 inches thick : if covered
with pine, it prevents bruising the work, and is easier to
true up. Such benches should be 32 to 34 inches high, 34
inches wide, and if in sections, at least 10 feet long. The
vice should be strong, of the same proportions before given.
The screw will be more convenient if of a coarse pitch, so
as to act quickly. The square thread screws, coming into

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 181

use, are well adapted to pattern makers, vices, or for any
work that requires much use of the vice. Always have
the screw and slide bar arranged so that the vice can be
drawn out or closed up to any distance, without helping
the bottom along with the hands; this can be done by
putting a bearing over the top of the screw inside the nut
behind the standing leg, and by having a well-fitting collar
key, and also a good running bar at the bottom. It is
better to spend a little time in fitting a vice properly,
than to stoop or sit down to pull out the vice jaw at the
bottom each time it is changed for different sizes of stuff.

Wagon and carriage makers mainly use parallel iron
vices, which are so much better for the purpose that there
is no need of describing how wooden vices should be made.

BENCH TOOLS FOR WOOD WORK.

It was remarked in the Introduction that we sometimes
see a man without much physical strength, and apparently
without exertion, do more work than a strong one who
labours harder. No fact is better known to wood work-
men than this, but the lesson it teaches is generally
neglected, and the matter regarded as a kind of mysterious
dispensation, over which there is no control. There is no
greater mistake; workmen may have peculiar faculties
mentally that enable them to succeed better than others
when their work is very diversified and intricate, but so
far as bench work is concerned, nearly all the difference
can be traced to the tools used ; a fast workman generally
has plenty of them, kept in order, and in the right place.
Hand skill is of course requisite, but hand skill is a
result of good tools, and the same spirit that promotes

182 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

order ensures speed. A man may do good work witn
poor tools, and if well skilled may do a day's work with
poor tools, but such a man takes no pride in his business,
and could do proportionally more, and with greater ease,
if he had better tools.

It is almost impossible to speak intelligently or specifi-
cally about tools without assuming some special kind of
work to govern the matter, but as this would exceed the
brief limits assigned to the subject here, we will endeavour
to treat it in a general way.

The first and leading tools are bench planes, a set of
which should consist of one 26-inch jointer 2|-inch iron,
one 24-inch jointer 2f-inch iron, one 22-inch fore-plane
2^-inch iron, one jack plane 2-J-inch iron, all double irons ;
one jack plane 2-inch single iron, one handle smooth plane
2^-inch iron, one common smooth plane 2-inch iron, one
block plane 2-inch single iron — nine planes in all, as a
set of bench planes. To these standard planes may be
added a panel, plough, and right and left rebate planes.
Other planes, such as hollows and rounds, match and
moulding planes, are usually shop tools, to be used in
common.

For chisels an outfit should consist of a set of firmer-
chisels, from |th to 2 in.; two long firmer - chisels for
paring, 1 £ and If in. ; two socket chisels for heavy work,
f and 1 J in. ; bench gouges, from -J to 2 in. ; and a 1-in.
blunt scraping chisel. All should be in order, handled,
and kept in racks at the back of the bench, within easy
reach. For saws there will be needed one rip and one
cross-cut hand saw, one panel saw, one each 12 and 8 inch
back saws, with others of a special character, such as a
ramp saw, bow saw, and dovetail saw.

Planes, chisels, and saws, are the main tools in bench
work, and should be of the best quality.

THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK.

183

For the convenience of apprentices who desire to select
a set of tools, the following list is appended; it may
contain many more than are needed, but will be none the
less useful for reference ; —

Planes, as before.

Chisels and gouges, as before.

Hand, back, and other saws, as

before.

3, 5, and 7 inch try-squares.
One carpenter's steel square.
Bench and tack hammers.
One wood mallet.
One 5-inch hand-axe.

-rule.

One 24-inch single fold slide
Oil-stone, slip, and oil-can.
One pair 4-inch spring dividers.
One pair 8-inch steel compasses.
One wooden brace, with full set

of bits.
One set auger-bits, from | to 1

inch.
Two spoke-shaves, 2^ and 3 inch.

To these may be added a number of little things which,
although hardly to be included in a list of bench tools,
will often be wanted, such as a chalk-line and spool, bench
brush, strap block, sand-paper block, wood straight-edges,
plumb-line, spirit level, or bench hooks, which can be
supplied as needed, but should be owned by the workman,
and kept at the bench, each in its proper place.

When a man learns bench work, he should do so
thoroughly. He should study and observe the various
modes of performing work which he sees around him, and
estimate their advantages. The fact that bench work is
mainly done by the piece in wood shops would be, as
one would think, a sufficient incentive for workmen to
study it carefully, with a view to increase their earn-
ings, but strange to say the facts do not permit such a
conclusion.

Twenty-five cents a day saved or made by having a
good bench and a complete set of tools, amount to 75
dollars a year, almost enough to pay for an outfit of tools,
to say nothing of the greater satisfaction with which the
work can be executed.

In using bench planes it is a good plan to learn to

184 THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK.

plane with one hand as much as possible, especially with
jack planes.

To keep both hands on a plane makes one of two things
necessary, either to walk along and carry the body with
the plane at each stroke ; or else to plane by short strokes,
making a kind of chipping operation. A man can stand
in one position and plane the length of a piece 4 feet long,
with one ' hand, and propel the plane with just as much
force, and when he has learned it, with more force than
if he used both hands. If a brace pin is used in the side
of the bench, he can, in roughing out with a jack plane,
do twice as much in a given time as he could by grasping
the plane in both hands and moving his body with it.
Granting this proposition, which will be fully proved by
an experiment and following it until learned, is it not
strange that we rarely see planes used in one hand ?

Another thing connected with dressing up stuff which
may save time and labour, is the use of the try square.
Supposing that a piece is being jointed or squared in the
vice, the custom in trying is to remove the
plane, put the square on the piece with the
blade on the top, and then stoop down to
look under the blade, generally low enough
to bring the eye level with the piece. This
can be done with half the trouble and with
more accuracy by placing the head of the
square on the top of the piece, as in Fig. 65,
and looking down along the blade at the side.
To do this the plane need not be removed from the piece,
the body is kept erect, and in the case of a thin board
instead of having but its thickness to gauge from, there is
the whole length of the square blade to be sighted. At
first it will seem awkward to use a square in this manner,

THE OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK. 185

and difficult to have it balance on the top of the stuff, but
after a little practice it becomes natural and easy, even on
the thinnest pieces, and it would be equally awkward to
return to the old method.

These two examples are cited as preliminary to saying
that very old practice may be capable of improvement.
In fact the tendency is to move in a particular groove, to
hold to old habits, and the tenacity with which they are
retained is generally as the length of time they have been
practised; so strong has this influence been in opposing
improvement and progress that we are justified in accept-
ing any old custom with a certain degree of distrust, not
of its being wrong in the main, for anything long practised
by intelligent people is generally right, but this statement
must be qualified by adding, so far as it goes. The very
confidence that causes us to cling to old usages is but a
recognition of the truth of the proposition.

In America this conservatism is but weak compared to
older countries, and in this fact is found one of the strongest
reasons for the progress made in improving hand manipu-
lation and industry of all kinds. Kapid changes may
sometimes lead to errors which a greater respect for old
customs would have enabled us to avoid, but upon the
whole the gain is vastly greater than the loss.

It is therefore contended that because bench practice in
wood work is old, it is no reason why it cannot be improved,
especially as it has been greatly modified and changed
by the introduction of machinery.

THE END.

INDEX.

ACCIDENTS, causes of, 69.

from winding clothing, 77.

from flying cutters, 79.

• from set screws, 77.

from saws, 71.

from winding belts, 75.

from wood machines, 69.

in sawing, to guard against, 71.

precautions against, 78.

Arrangement of machines, 4.
of shafting, diagram of, 21.

BAND saw blades, 121, 122.

saw blades, joining, 122, 123.

saws, brazing forge for, 121.

saws, edge strain of, 124, 125.

saws, for recutting, 127.

saws, for resawing, the con-
struction of, 127.

saws, on the use of, 121.

saws, the width of, 125.

saws, the teeth of, 125.

saws, the speed of, 125, 126.

Bearings, brass, 92.

how to fit, 90.

how to examine, 97.

metal for, 91.

moulded, 87.

to melt the metal for, 89.

to mould, 88.

the cause of heating, 97.

the care of, 96.

Belt joints, diagrams of, 84.

Belts for wood machines, proportions
of, 32.

for cutters, width of, 57.

hook joints for, 84.

how to throw on, 76.

injury by rubbing, 59.

main, material for, 33.

of leather and india-rubber, 38.

of webbing for high speeds, 36.

plans of joining, 33.

round and flat, 36.

single and double, 86.

tractile power of, 32.

Belts, treatment of, 36.

tension of, 35.

to make run true, 59.

danger of throwing on, 76.

weight of, 35.

Belting for wood machinery, 32.
Benches for wood work, 178.

for cabinet work, 180.

for pattern making, 180.

tool racks for, 179.

Bench tools for wood work, 181.

tools, a list of, 182.

Bench work, 177.

— work, how to save, 183, 184.
Boilers for wood manufactories, 13.

manner of covering, 16.

i Boring bits, speed of, 54.

CEILINGS, flush, convenience of, 10.

Circular saws, danger from, 71.

gauges for, 73.

pieces thrown from, 72.

rigidity of, 55.

speed of, 55.

Clearing wood shops, 42.

Countershaft, diagram of, 27.

Countershafts, bearings for, 30.

erecting, 25.

hanger-plates for, 26.

laying out the position of, 28.

speed of, 54.

to set parallel, 29.

Couplings for shafting, 23.

Cutter-bolts, overstraining, 80.

I material for, 80.

| Cutter-heads, diagrams of, 103, 104.
I Cutters, angle of, for hard wood, 103.

I bevels for, 108.

I bolts for, 79.

I of scraping machines, 106.

of solid steel, 147.

| of thin steel, 110,111.

the angle of, 101.

the bevel of, 105.

Cutting parallel to and across the
fibre, 99.

INDEX.

187

Cutting, propositions relating to, 100.

saws, as an example of, 99.

wood, the principle of, 98.

DAMPER regulators, steam, 17.
Difficulties of text-books, v.
Division of labour in Europe, iv.

EFFECT of machines on labour, v.

FACTORIES, general arrangement of, 2.
Feeding furnaces, manner of, 18.
Fire, precautions against, 49.

rooms, arrangement of, 18.

sources of, 49.

to guard against, 50.

Firing, irregularity of, 14.

the manner of, 17.

Floors, supports for, 11.

sheathing for, 10.

with beams and joists, 10.

Furnace, cross section of, 17.

elevation of, 16.

longitudinal section of, 15.

Furnaces for wood factories, 15.
general dimensions for, 16.

GAUGE lathes, character of, 164.
Girders for wood factories, 8.

supports for, 9.

Grinding cutters, the object of, 111.

hard stones for, 108.

Grindstones, arrangement of, 112.
for cutters, 108.

HANDBOOKS, how prepared, via.
Hand-feeding machines, 143, 144.
Hand labour supplanted by ma-
chines, iii.

Handling material, 37.
Hanger-plates, mode of fastening, 27.
Hangers for line shafts, 23.

strength of, 30.

Hard wood, speed of cutting, 56.
Height of factories, affected by the

floor framing, 8.
Hoisting machinery, 40.

machines, danger of, 41.

Hook-belt joints, manner of making,

34.

JOBBING mill, arrangement of, 3,

diagram of, 3.

Joiners' stuff, mill for, 6.

LATHES, excentric, cost of turning by,

167.

excentric, 165.

excentric, the arrangement of,

165.

for gauge turning, 163.

for rod turning, 167.

shears for, 161.

the construction of, 159, 160.

tools for, 161.

with finishing cutters, 163.

— — with rotary tools, 164.
Lime feed water for boilers, 13.
Line shafting, arrangement of, 4.
Lubricating compounds, 97.

tallow, cups for, 95.

wood machines, 92.

Lumber from round timber, 174, 175.

machine, dimensions of, 176.

machine to prepare, 176.

supplying, 174.

to procure, 175.

MACHINE lines in buildings, 31.

lines, manner of making, 31 .

operating as a trade, iv.

Machines, foundations for, 32. .

how manufactured, 171.

levelling and fixing, 32.

purchasing, 171.

resistance of in starting, 20, 60.

setting, 30.

stopping and starting, 60.

Magazines for shavings, 45.

Main driving pulleys, diameter of,

54.
Material, moving, means of, 41.

room for moving, 37.

trucks for moving, 37.

Measurements, by succession, 31.
Mortising, 149.

bits, chuck for, 154.

chisels, to prepare, 155.

machines for joiner work, 151.

machines, reciprocating, 149,

150.
machines, rotary, 150, 151.

188

INDEX.

Mortising machines, rotary, for chair

work, 153.
plans for compared, 151, 152.

OIL, means of applying, 94.

feeders, wicks for, 95.

paraffine, 93.

waste of, 93.

On hand-feeding, 143.

PATENTS, 168.

as capital, 170.

on thin cutters, 111.

the scope of, 169.

value of, 169.

Planers, carriage, 131.

Planer carriages, objects of, 131.

for surfacing, 136.

parallel, 134.

parallel, the principles of, 134,

135.

scraping, 137.

traversing, 132.

used in Europe, 134.

with chain feed, 136.

Planing and jobbing mill, difference

between, 5.

cylinders, speed of, 54.

machines, classification of, 130.

machines, starting, 136.

mill, arrangement of, 7.

mill, diagram of, 6.

mill, general dimensions for

details, 6.

the amount of edge used in, 132.

the speed of, 133.

to increase the speed of, 132,

133.
Pneumatic apparatus, danger of fire

from, 48.

conductors for wood shops, 43.

fans, construction of, 43.

fans, diagrams of, 44.

pipes for sweepings, 47.

pipes, hoods for, 45.

pipes, material for, 45.

Polishing, as a process, 138.

Barker's machine for, 139.

machine, drawings for, 1 42.

wheels, how to construct, 139.

Posts, position of, 4.

Power for grinding, and other details,
58.

needed for American wood ma-
chines, 57.
— required, table for, 58.

to drive machines, 56.

value of, 59.

waste of, 59.

Processes, nature of, in wood work, 1.

Pulleys, arrangement of, on line
shafts, 75.

balancing, 22.

for line shafting, 22.

loose, fit of, 62.

loose, means of oiling, 64.

loose, oil ways for, 63.

loose, packing for, 63.

shifting, 61.

shifting, arrangement of, 64.

shifting, with idle shaft, 61.

QUALIFICATIONS of an operator, v.

REPAIRING, an economical plan for, 82.

instructions for, 85.

outfit for, 81.

room for, 84.

the difficulty of understanding,

83.

tools for, 81.

wood machinery, 80.

Repairs, cost of, 80.

SAW benches, arrangement of, 114.

benches, for jointing, 114.

mandrils, dimensions for, 116.

mandrils, manner of fitting, 117.

Saws, circular, 113.

circular, guides for, 114.

counter-balances for, 128.

cross-cutting carriages for, 120.

for cross-cutting, 120.

form of teeth for, 117.

for recutting, 128.

for scroll cutting, 128.

gauges for, 114.

guides, drawings of, 115.

how to set, 117.

jig, to set up, 128.

jig, foundations for, 128.

jig, men to operate, 129.

on the use of, 119.

INDEX.

189

Saws, packing for, 115.

reciprocating, 128.

scroll, sharpening, 130.

scroll, the teeth of, 129.

— setting machine for, 118.
Shafting, advantages of several cross

lines, 22.

arrangement of, 20.

dimensions for, 21.

for wood shops, 19.

how to level, 23.

imperfection of, 19.

severe duty of, in wood shops,

20.

to line horizontally, 24.

Shaping cutters, how to prepare, 147.

deep cutters for, 148.

hand feed for, 142.

machines, cutters for, 75.

machines, danger of, 73.

machines, guards for, 73.

machines, holding clamp for, 74.

machines, origin of, 146.

machines, speed of, 148.

machines with two spindles, 145.

spindles, bearings of, 149.

the meaning of, 142.

Sharpening tools, 106.

moulding cutters, 109.

emery wheels for, 106-109.

planing knives, device for, 107.

tools for, 112.

-bench tools for, 112.
Shavings magazine, diagram of, 46.
Shifters for belts, 65.

— for belts, arrangement of, 65.
Shops, system in, 113.

Speed of line shafting, 54.

of reciprocating machines, 55.

of cutting edges, 52.

diversity of opinions of, 51.

— — rules for, 52.

tables for, 53.

of wood machines, 51.

Starting machines, shock of, 68.
Steam engines, details of, 13.

requirements of, 12.

power for wood factories, 11.

TEMPERING tools, 87.

Tenoning, 156.

machines, old and new, 156.

machines, the carriages of, 157.

Tension pulleys, 66.

pulleys, advantages of, 67.

pulleys, construction of, 68.

— pulleys, diagrams of, 68.

Text-books for wood-machine opera-
tors, ix.

how far useful, vii.

the reason they are wanting,

vii.

their importance, v.

Tools, taking care of, 112.

Tramways for wood shops, 41, 42.

Trucks, advantages of, 40.

construction of, 38.

details of, and dimensions for,

39.

diagrams for, 38.

Try square, how to use, 184.

Turned work, to polish, 162.

Turning, 158.

Turning, gauge tool for, 167.

hand lathes for, 159.

the importance of, 158.

UNIVERSAL machines, 144, 145.

WATER pipes, freezing of, 18.
Wood-dust, inflammable nature of, 48.
Wood machines, analogy between, vii.

machines, danger from, 70.

machines, how improved, 146.

machines, improvements in, 146.

work, divisions of, 1.

work has no text-books, vi.

in America, extent of, vi.

Just Published, in crown ±to, cloth, gilt, $6 or 25s.

A TREATISE

THE CONSTKUCTION AND OPERATION

OF

WOOD-WORKING MACHINES:

CONTAINING

A HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE

MANUFACTURE OF WOOD-CUTTING MACHINERY

SINCE THE YEAR 1790,

fllustrateb bg mmienras |)Iates attfr

THE MODERN PRACTICE OF PROMINENT ENGINEERS IN
ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND AMERICA.

BY J. KICHAKDS,

MECHANICAL ENGINEER.

NEW YORK :
E. & F. N. SPON, 446, BECOME STREET.

LONDON:
48, CHARING CROSS.

The attention of Engineers, Builders, and Wood Manu-
facturers, is called to this work as one that cannot fail to
be of advantage in their business.

Although wood conversion is an extended and impor-

tant interest, both in Home and Foreign manufactures, and
although immediately connected with general engineering
matters, such as ship-building, bridge-building, and rail-
way equipment, it has thus far remained without such
text-books as have contributed so much to the develop-
ment of other branches of industry.

The application of machinery to wood conversion is
the subject of special interest at this time, because of
the increased cost of skilled labour, a condition that must
be mainly met by a more thorough and extended applica-
tion of machines in the various branches of wood work.

The Treatise is directed to this object, and contains
explanations of the principles that govern wood-cutting,
with full instructions as to the best manner of construct-
ing and operating wood-working machines, their care
and management, with other useful information that can-
not fail to be worth many times the cost of the book to
those engaged or connected with wood manufacture, the
equipment of railways, or supplying engineering plant.

The work includes an interesting history of the leading
facts connected with the origin and progress of machines
for wood conversion in Europe and America ; with dis-
sertations on the various operations of sawing, planing,
shaping, boring and turning wood, based upon the ex-
perience of a practical engineer who has for twenty years
been engaged in designing, constructing, and operating
standard and special machines for wood manufacture.

It contains twenty-five folding plates, and nearly one
hundred full-page illustrations of English, French, and
American Wood-working Machines in modern use, selected
from the designs of prominent engineers. The engravings
are finely executed, consisting mainly of true elevations.

Extracts from Notices of the Work by leading Scientific Journals.

" With the exception of a very few imperfect articles in
encyclopaedias, two or three papers read before scientific
societies, and the description of special machines contained
in patent specifications and in the pages of technical journals,
such as our own, the subject has been left untouched; and
until the appearance of the book now before us, there was, so
far as we are aware, none that could be referred to for inform-
ation as to how wood machines should be constructed and
managed. Under these circumstances, Mr. BICHAEDS' Treatise
is doubly welcome ; it is welcome in the first place, because it
supplies a want, and in the next place because it supplies it
well. . . . Mr. EICHAEDS devotes two sections of his work to
a consideration of wood-working machinery generally, and to
an explanation of the principles that govern wood-cutting;
these explanations being accompanied by data concerning hand-
power operations and the performance of the same work by
machines. ... It contains information that will be appre-
ciated by a large circle of readers besides those specially
interested in the construction of wood-working machinery." —
Engineering, Nov. 8, 1872.

"One of the few technical works of originality and merit
that have recently appeared. The plan adopted by the au-
thor is to notice in a general way the leading operations of
wood conversion, with the construction and operation of ma-
chines in modern use ; introducing such rules and treating of
such laws as have been fixed by practice and experience, and
have come within the knowledge of the writer within an ex-
tended experience in designing and constructing both standard

and special machines for wood work The illustrations

form an important feature of the work The descriptive

letter-press and the vast amount of information about the
various kinds of wood work will make this work indispensable
to all who are either makers or users of wood-working ma-
chines."— Mechanic's Magazine, Nov. 16, 1872.

" It is a full and intelligent account from the pen of a prac-
tical engineer, of the construction and operation of these useful
implements, which are every day becoming more of necessity

o

where there is a strain on the ordinary powers of production.
A closing word is due to the illustrations, which are as copious
as they are well executed." — British Trade Journal, Nov. 1, 1872.

" Its publication supplies a want, and the execution of the
work is for the most part all that could be desired. The author
has his subject well in hand, and his practical experience is
well seconded by his literary ability. The book is carefully
printed, and the illustrations well engraved." — Building News,
Nov. 15, 1872.

" If Mr. BICHAEDS' work were one of many on the same subject,
it would possess an intrinsic value as an exposition of the opinions
of a man practically engaged in the construction of the machines
of which he treats ; as it is the only work of the kind yet pub-
lished, it cannot fail to be of very great interest to those engaged
in similar pursuits, and to those who employ and superintend the
operation of wood-working machines The work con-
tains one hundred and sixteen excellent engravings, which are
mainly shaded elevations." — English Mechanic and World of
Science, Dec. 13, 1872.

" Mr. EICHABDS has written on a subject with which he has a
thoroughly practical acquaintance, and he has succeeded in pro-
ducing a treatise which should certainly be in the hands of all
users of wood-working machinery, and which, moreover, will be
of much interest to engineers generally. In conclusion we
should state that the work is illustrated by no less than one
hundred and seventeen well-engraved plates, showing examples
of every class of wood-working machinery by the leading makers
in this country, in America, and on the Continent, while it is
admirably printed, and its general get-up reflects credit on
all concerned in its production." — Engineering, Dec. 20, 1872.
Second notice.

" The work contains all the information which those who are
particularly interested in wood-working machines are likely

to require If it had not been for pressure on our

space, we had intended to give a detailed account of the book ;
but no abstract would do justice to the valuable information
which Mr. RICHARDS furnishes All builders who pos-
sess machinery of this kind, or who intend to purchase some,
ought to study attentively this book." — The Architect, Dec. 28,
1872.

LIST OF SUBJECTS TREATED OF.

History of "Wood-working Machines since 1790.

Engineering Progress in Machine Construction.

Invention as an Element in Engineering.

The Past and the Future of Machine making.

On Wood-cutting Machines in general.

The Relation between Hand and Power Operations in Woodwork and

the Principles that govern them.
American and English Wood Machines.
French Wood Machines.
Machine Labour-saving.
Combination in Wood Machines.
Framing of Machines.
Patterns for Castings.
Bearings for Shafts and Spindles.
Sizes, Proportions, and manner of Constructing.
Shafting for Wood Manufactures.
Rotary Balancing.
Resawing Machinery.
Band Saws and Band Sawing.
Band Sawing Machinery.
Jig Saws.

Slitting and Cross-cut Saws.
Cutting and Cutters.
Planing Machinery.
Mortising Machinery.
Turning Machinery.
Shaping Machinery.
Boring Machinery.
Dovetailing Machinery.
Cutting Machines with Direct Action.
Pneumatic Conductors for Clearing Wood Shops.
Belt Contact and other matters connected with High Speeds.
Machine Operating.

OVERDUE, < $'<°° °N THE SEVENTH ™

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